I know it sounds dramatic, but that’s how it feels. Work, play, and magic fold into each other, with “Pure Imagination” playing softly in the background. You lose yourself in the routine of camp life and find yourself in the process.
The food? Repetitive but iconic. The energy? Contagious. There’s the customer service and the kids and the getting closer—the living together, the working together, the doing days, the doing nights, the thirty-six-hour adventures squeezed into time off, driving cars across California.
It’s an inviting of intimacy, an inviting of exploration, and a thinking that maybe, just maybe, I have the whole world, with all infinity of its offerings, in the palm of my hand—and it’s a world that’s wide and warm, and wise and weightless.
It’s a family hanging out in a patch of the woods—a patch of woods that might as well be the center of the universe. For so many, when the summer ends, the countdown to the next one begins.
I asked a couple of students who staffed their first summer at the Lair last year why they’re coming back—and why they can’t wait to do it all over again. Here’s what they said.
The bonds at the Lair? They go way deeper than the surface. The Lair builds connections with friends like no other place in this world, Jesse Kolodney told me. They’re stitched together from late-night laughs, shared experiences, and shared exhaustion. There’s a “we’re all in this together” thing going on—it’s a belonging that hits you in the chest, a knowing that you’re part of something bigger, something that sticks long after the summer ends. Like Rachel Berry said in Glee, “Being a part of something special makes you special.”
And there’s an unspoken commitment. People work hard, but it’s not for themselves. It’s for each other. It’s about lifting each other up, pushing each other to be better, to do better. There’s this collective focus on the bigger picture—making everything more meaningful, more real. “You learn so much about yourself and how to care for other people,” Frankie Evans said.
Jesse added that, in just a few months, he learned more about himself than he had in all the years before. He got comfortable performing and singing in front of people—something he’d never imagined doing. It’s impossible not to grow at the Lair. He’s excited to keep the ball rolling next summer.
Every week, a fresh batch of campers arrives, each one a little different from the last. They bring new things to the table—new stories, new auras. It’s a revolving door, always turning, always shifting. The chance to meet so many people from different backgrounds is something you can’t replicate anywhere else. It’s like living in a constantly evolving, ever-expanding world of connection. “It’s great for networking with alumni in fields you are interested in,” Jesse said.
There’s this fearless dive-in, no questions asked. No one knows exactly where it’ll lead, but everyone’s ready for whatever’s next. “People are always so down for everything. No idea is too wild, and nobody has to do anything alone,” Frankie said. “New experiences every single day,” Jesse confirmed.
Jesse also talked about how freeing it was to unplug—to leave behind the constant ping of notifications, the endless scroll, and the way screens seem to eat up the hours without you even noticing. There’s no time to miss your phone when your days are full of real, tangible things: the crackle of a campfire, the warmth of the sun.
“There is love all around camp,” Frankie said, and it’s true. It’s in the air. It’s in the way people say hi to you first thing in the morning when you’re walking to the bathroom to brush your teeth. It’s in the hugs that feel like home. It’s in the way the faces of campers light up when they see you. It’s in every shared look, every inside joke, every little act of kindness.
The trees standing in the staff area. The stars sitting in the sky. “The Lair brings you so much gratitude and love for life and the Earth and nature,” Frankie said. You step in one way—unsure, curious—and you leave another. The intensity of the whole experience, the people, the place, it has a way of stripping things down. The noise fades, and you’re left with something sharper, softer, and more simple: a clearer sense of who you are. The Lair has a way of making you see things—not just the world, but your life, your moments, the people you walk next to—with a new kind of appreciation.
Being a Lair staffer isn’t just a summer job—it’s a bright, dynamic chapter of life. Step in, jump in, and let the Lair surprise you. Join Jesse and Frankie next summer—and see what all the excitement is about!
You’ll keep thinking to yourself, Wait, this is work?
Apply now to work at the Lair this summer. Applications for summer 2025 are open, with interviews January through March.
