Headed to the Woods (or Woulds?)

This was just a moment in the woods…

Our moment.

Shimmering and lovely and sad.

Leave the moment, just be glad

For the moment that we had.

Every moment is of moment

When you’re in the woods.

- from “Any Moment,” Into the Woods

This afternoon I’m headed to Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hill for a night away with 30 people I used to work with in various capacities at Hidden Villa summer camp, 10+ years ago. 

In many ways Hidden Villa was an incredibly unique place to spend the summer. It’s an organic CSA farm, a working farm, a nature preserve, a youth hostel, an advocate for social justice, and education center.

In other ways, Hidden Villa was exactly like I’ve heard every other camp is… full of first loves, broken hearts, experiments, elicit meetings of counselors after the kids have gone to bed, rapid fire trips into town (Wet Hot American Summer style) and long-lasting friendships.

I worked there for three summers after attending the camp for five. The summers I spent there were transformative. They were the first place I ever felt at all cool, at all valued for being anything other than smart, the first place someone ever told me they had a crush on me (shout-out to Javi, wherever you are), first kiss (not with Javi, sadly), first time I ever tried smoking, and first place I ever really believed in myself.

After I graduated from high school, I went to college and never looked back. Hidden Villa was for then, and now I was in college — someone who had internships and planned ahead, not someone who looked back to what they’d done in high school. Friendships I’d made became more distant, emails and phone calls become less frequent until Hidden Villa was less a part of me and more something I “did” in the past.

I’m excited to head back there this afternoon and remember why this place was so important to me. The people, the smells, the songs straight out of the 1960s… even if that memory fades as I drive back to San Francisco on Sunday morning.