Summer camp is a cherished experience for many American children, starting around age eight. It represents independence and lifelong friendships. The tragic flash floods in Texas, particularly at Camp Mystic, where multiple lives were lost, struck a deep emotional chord for many Americans. The camps create connections across generations, and as news spread about the devastation, parents experienced intense feelings of loss and fear, recalling the joys and memories associated with sending their children to camp every summer, a vital part of American culture.
Among the many dreams that the US offers its citizens, there's this: that the American child, around the age of eight, will go to sleep-away camp a few hours from home and begin one of the key formative experiences of their life.
As news of the floods started to break last weekend, there was a frenzy of communication between parents across the country, many of whom had dropped their own kids off at camp the previous week.
For 26 million American kids each year, going to camp is indistinguishable from summer itself, and the scene at Camp Mystic was intimately imaginable.
What made this disaster so horrific is that, for many Americans, the scene at Camp Mystic was intimately imaginable, evoking the excitement and nerves of the youngest children being dropped off for the first time.
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