Frontier Ranch, Colorado

My journey started in April. My Young Life leader at announced that there was a chance to go to Frontier Ranch in for our summer camp. Once I heard about the trip, it was a done deal. I was going and I was lucky to go with 8 of my good friends and three leaders. My leader talked to us on how we to raise money for the $525 trip. Young Life held a rummage sale one weekend to help us earn money. Frontier Ranch was getting closer. We were so pumped for the trip. The day to leave was May 24^th. We had a 30 hour bus ride: awesome.

We were supposed to leave Knoxville at 9am but didn’t leave till 11:30am because one of the buses broke down. After the bus was fixed we were on our way until we hit Nashville and the same bus broke down again. We would have to wait an hour before a bus from the city of Nashville showed up. We had a couple of stops for food and breaks and then we made it to St. Louis, Missouri. It was 11:30pm and we were ready to visit The Arch. We went into the museum under The Arch and then headed out for another couple of hours on the bus. Honestly by now we all were absolutely tired out of our minds but the leaders kept us awake to get us pumped for our arrival at camp. 

The camp was breath-taking. When we pulled up to the camp the work crew was standing outside of the bus yelling and screaming, welcoming us to camp. We would be led to our cabins and hang out for a while to check out the camp. The camp had a Frisbee golf course in the mountains, horse back riding, dune buggies, a rope course, game room, basketball court, a club room, and a heated pool. So many thoughts were running through my mind about what I was going to do and how much fun I was going to have. The camp provided great food and care throughout the week. 

During the week, the camp had some of the work crew dress up as characters with a theme and they were so funny. The outfits and the people were hilarious. I would just look at them and start laughing. Each night was a different experience. A game or event was planned out for the whole camp to enjoy from Western night to Olympic game day. Then there was club. Club was so much fun. The skits the workers performed and the songs we sang were awesome. I will always remember the one night when the camp had probably the biggest rave party. The workers came out in full black costumes with glow sticks glued to them. The lights went out and a strobe light turned on with music blaring. Then hundreds of glow sticks were thrown out to the whole camp. I think we went at least an hour for the night just swinging glow sticks and dancing. 

Each night a speaker would talk to us at club and we would have cabin time to talk about what we just heard and our thoughts. We would do this for the week and have a blast for the whole trip. The trip would eventually come to an end and it was time to go home. The trip back didn’t seem nearly as long as the trip up to Colorado, but I was definitely ready to go home. I returned home a different guy. Many of my friends took notice that I walked, talked, and acted differently. I knew they were expecting the old me to come back any time but I told myself, “I’m not going back to that old life: I have a new one.” I went through an entire devotional through the summer by myself. It’s incredible to think to think how I used to act and now look how I’ve changed. 

I’m now a senior in high school and I am pumped to not only start my last year of school, but also pursue my new life with Christ with my Young Life leaders and friends.