The, Rolling Stones, Rob, The Jh Ranch Camp Director

The Rolling Stones, self-acclaimed and fan-supported, is “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” The Rolling Stones is well into its fifth decade performing together as a group. They are the longest lived, continuous performing band in the history of music. From the band’s early British beginnings through the present, The Rolling Stones has continued to adapt its music to the sounds and styles of the past five decades, to remain ever visible and popular in the eyes of the world. The “Stones,” as the band has become known by, was formed by the blues-loving London born, childhood friends, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Over the period following Jagger’s and Richards’ chance reunion on a train at the Dartford

“[Fijian] camp is like nothing else. Being able to experience a little get together called devotion, which is a pre meeting service just before we have breakfast and before we have dinner.”

The year is 2003, I am eight and for half of a year I have lived with my grandmother and my brothers. The school year has just ended and summer has begun. “I’m tired of you kids, you boys have been driving me up the walls and I need a break!” my grandmother said. “You’re going to summer camp!” I had never been camping but that did not stop a smile only a child could have stretch from ear to ear across my little face. With a mouth lacking in front teeth, I screamed, “Yay!” My grandmother had signed us up for the annual boys and girls club summer camping trip, meaning eight weeks of fun under a warm sun at camp Big Silver in the neighboring state, Michigan. I will never forget my first day of summer camp.

She looked up at me with a face full of concern and said, “I do not want to go rafting. I want to go home.” In my ten years of coming to camp I had never seen someone so unhappy to be at camp. I sat down on the bunk next to her and began to talk about

I rode down the road with anticipation as many thoughts and questions raced through my mind. Scared to death, I tried to suppress these thoughts and gather up all the courage I had within myself because we were almost to our destination. What would this experience be like? What exactly would I be doing? I was in unknown territory in Louisville, Kentucky, where I knew no one except for the other members of my youth group. “Okay everyone, we are almost there. Gather up all your stuff you need. Make sure you leave all valuables on the bus,” I heard my youth pastor say. He continued, “No name tags and do not tell anyone your full name. Not even the children.” My eyes got wide as soon as I heard this, and I wondered what in the world I had gotten

On a sunny, steamy summer day in mid-July, as I passed under a bronze archway reading Rocky River Ranch, little did I know what the future held. Camp life was a 180-degree turn from the peace and quiet I was used to in my calm home. Being an only child from a household with two loving parents, my life lacked conflict. As a shy, introverted person I quickly had to adapt to a place full of endless chatter, interaction, and wacky songs. I was nervous about my ability to make such a difficult transition, but the love and positivity abound at camp simplified the shift.

In their letters, they described all the fun they were having and I, naturally envious, asked my mom if I could go next year. Camp Merrie Woode, peacefully tucked off in the North Carolina Mountains, truly changed me as a person. It is an all-girls summer camp that I attended for 5 weeks at a time for 6 years. Hikes filled with both silence and laughter, trees full of wisdom and peace, and people filled with kindness is what makes Merrie Woode such an empowering place. I enjoyed hiking with my family before camp, but at camp, it became one of my favorite activities. The mountaineering counselors, naturally making me feel at ease, led me, Abby, and my fellow campers through many hiking trails and climbing

Three days, two nights is how long we’ll be staying in Portland. First we have to get through the morning briefing, survive the excruciating safety talk on how “Portland is not Salem”, and how “Portland is a much more dangerous place”. These few minutes will probably be the longest minutes of the trip, not including the ride there, but I obtained some audiobooks the day before for this one hour ride. We start to move our bags from our classroom to the cars we’ll be riding in, six can ride in Mr. Abel’s car, our advisor, fourteen on the bus, and another six in the Mrs. Jones's car, she volunteered as chaperone. I decide to ride in the bus, but my friends who were both crushing on the same girl go in Mr. Abel’s car, that was probably the most awkward car ride of the century.

For seven of our ten days, we hiked through the mountains of Philmont Scout Ranch, where any signal strength was rare. The fact that I wouldn’t be able to communicate with my family for much of the trip had me nervous to go. When I was there, I still couldn’t shake my anxiety. After a few days, I realized that dwelling on my homesickness was doing nothing but hurting me.

Everyone woke up, but quickly forced themselves to go back to bed because we knew we had to get our rest for the next big day. When we woke up the next morning at about 7:30 A.M., we were even more tired and sore than the previous day. Did I really want to go on? I could not feel my body and was beyond exhausted. No one could not feel their arms and upper-body, and Ashleigh was very sick. We complained that we did not want to finish the trip and we did not want to canoe anymore, but the adults said that was the only way we could get home. Therefore, we had to pack all the belongings in the canoes. We proceeded to the second half of the trip, which started off much better than the first because, finally, it stopped raining and the weather was very sunny. During the next 12.5 miles, although Amanda and I were far behind the other canoes, we sang, created our own songs, splashed each other with the paddles, swam, and spoke of the many new memories we were making now as well as the memories we have shared from the past. We saw many fish and turtles in the water, and also saw a couple snakes. We met some other people who were canoeing and spent a couple miles side-by-side with them, exchanging many stories. During all this time, I was realizing that in order to make the trip go fast and to have the most fun, I must stop complaining and focus on being positive. I had to stop overthinking the amount of canoeing we had left and had to focus on the memories, and the person I was making the memories with. We got out of the canoes every now and then to swim, and every couple miles, we would catch up to the other two canoes. We would share a snack or eat lunch before we kept going. The time had passed very quickly this day, and as soon as a we knew it, we rounded a corner to find a bridge that marks the last mile of the

We had planned to spend a good hour or so hanging out at the bottom and catching our breath, however due to the sun setting soon, we knew that we would have to immediately head back. So as irritated and tired as we were, we headed back up the trail. Now as I said we are all pretty outdoorsy people. However, Lauren isn’t the most athletic girl I know and also wore her dad’s boots which were three sizes too big and were beginning to give her blisters. Did I mention that the trail back is a three mile, straight-up hills trail? We knew that it was going to be hard to get her back to the top before it got to dark to hike. Also, since our car was in the horse parking lot, that would be an extra mile once we got to the top. So we figured the best option would be to divide up. Maya and I took off so that we could get the car and drive it back to where Lauren and JR would be waiting at the top of the hiking trail. Maya and I hiked up as quickly as we could, completely out of breath, out of water, and out of energy. I didn’t think that we would ever make it out, until finally I saw the light out of the trees. Once we made it out of the trail, we ran the mile to the car and rejoiced as we finally got to sit down in the air-conditioned Elantra. We drove back to Lauren and JR waiting for us and ended the hectic day by eating pancakes at Cracker

As my shaky hands gripped the wheel, I knew the ride would be unpleasant. I should've never been behind the wheel. My dad's cousin, Rudi, stayed with my family at the time. One hot, humid Wednesday he took Silvio, my brother, and I on a strenuous hike to Castlewood State Park. The all uphill hike did not feel like a walk in the park.

Formed in the sixties, The Rolling Stones consisted of Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts. Referring to themselves as the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll band, the song “Rollin’ Stones” written by Muddy Waters is what stemmed into the band 's name. The Stones recorded and sold what is estimated to be more than a quarter million albums until the early 1980s when Jagger and Richard had a fight over musical direction and the group grew apart from each other and did not record any music for years. Soon after The Rolling Stones were accepted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 1989, the band got back together and begin making more music. In 1994 the Rolling Stones won their first Grammy with the song “Voodoo Lounge”. After this success, the Stones embarked on a major tour raising a gross income of almost three million dollars. Throughout the 2000s, the band released albums and performed on tours pleasing the music world still to this day with the oldest member, Charlie Watts being 75 years old.

"Augustus! Have you finished packing?" asked my mother. I just hate how I have to move a lot because of my father's stupid traveling job. "Yeah mom! I'll be there in a second,” I mumbled to myself, making a wry face at her. I just want to live a normal ninth grade life, but all of this moving is keeping me from doing so. I'm supposed to be making new friends, and having fun but I just have to move every year. "Katie!" I exclaimed. "Katie! Are you ready?" I called a second time. Katie is my little sister, in first grade. She is my only reason for not completely dreading my life. "I'm coming, Auggie! Let me just finish feeding Mr. Grumpy." she replied, in a cute little voice, while feeding our cat. My family and I have been moving around Italy

I didn’t know these people. I had at most, only spoken to these kids occasionally before we were stuffed into a hot white van for 10 hours. My palms became sweaty and I couldn’t bring myself to speak as the familiar scenery of Brookfield rolled into miles of empty farmers fields, gas stations and tourist traps. Everyone crammed in this van seemed to know each other so well, their endless talking blurred into a lul.