⋆✦★ ᵗʰᵉ ᵃʳᵗ ˢʰᶦᵖ ★✦⋆

I'm a camper that's been going to udack since 2022 when I first did what used to be called Barton. I actually moved out of the US last year, so I never ended up going to camp. Unexpectedly (in a good way), I'll be flying up to NY for weeks 5 and 6 this year!

I do have a couple questions, if you have the time to answer them:

First - this year is going to be my first Wish Night/Week, and I'm so excited!! One thing is that I'm really bad at thinking on the spot so I'm wondering if I can know ahead of time: 1. the amount of time we have to decide on our wish and 2. what the guidelines are? From what I've heard from my friends, it's kind of a "leave it up to interpretation" wish. As in, make it so it's interpretable in multiple ways, if that makes sense? Correct me if I'm wrong lol.

Second - as stated previously, I missed last year. Is there any new camp lore I should know about?

Yayy thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I'll see you at camp!!

Hello there, whoever you are! It's great to hear from you, and I'm so glad you'll be coming back :) To answer your question about Wish Week: On Sunday, after campers arrive, attend the first camp council, go on the tour, and have dinner, then we'll all play orientation games, which will end with announcements of the week's workshops, Monday's one-shots, and (on the Sunday of Wish Week) how Wish Week works. From there, you have until you go to bed that night to write down your wish and give it to your counselor, who will give it to the wish faeries (the staff who sort the wishes). Wishes are distributed on Monday morning, and granted on Thursday evening. Your wish can be anything! It can be very literal, or incredibly vague. Over the years, we've implemented some different rules to address some trends that made certain kinds of wishes more difficult to grant, and it hasn't been decided yet what kinds of rules like that might be in place for 2026. The goal of any changes is to make it possible for everyone's wish to be grantable within those 3 or 4 days. Even if it's a technically impossible task, the granter should at least be able to reinterpret it within the original spirit of the wish so that it can be granted somehow.

But, it's generally a rule that your wish shouldn't have multiple different parts. Like, you probably shouldn't wish for a movie night in the lean-to with such-and-such friends and chocolate-covered strawberries in a chair made of clouds while Caleb jumps through a flaming hoop and a staff choir sing Axel F A Capella. But, any one of those things individually could be a great wish! Some examples of wishes that have been granted in the past are: - a violent kidnapping involving cheese - to be Katniss Everdeen - shapes and colors - a goat named Margot eating a cookie made of wood - an original song about the adventures of Knuckles - a variety of small receptacles - to climb Mt Everest Finally, to answer your second question: The truth is, camp culture moves so fast that there's new lore and inside jokes every week. They come and go so fast that you might not even know they were there if you missed the week when they were a trend. And that's okay! The vibes are different each session because the group of people are different. What was important lore last year might not be relevant at all by the time you're back at camp helping to create completely new lore!