William Espinosa
William is 17 and will be a Counselor in Training during the summer of 2025. He has been a camper under the Yukon River trip team since 2021 and has taken classes taught by them, been on trips led by them, and witnessed them for years. He recounted some of his best lessons learned and happiest memories:
This Yukon River trip has a special group of guys from whom I have grown up learning. The past 6 years at Camp Kooch-i-ching I have had the honor of having all 6 of these guys as a counselor in some form, whether that be from cabin staff to trip heads or class leaders. They all foster a community of love and perseverance, in some cases tough love but love nonetheless.
This was the case on my Junior trip to the Hog Creek in the boundary waters of Minnesota in 2021. Buddha and Noah were my counselors on that trip, being from the Marines they had a no BS, get from point A to point B safely and efficiently mindset, for my eager young mind which was hard to comprehend. Early mornings and late nights were not my friends at first but throughout the trip, Noah and Buddha taught me about perseverance in the most tough love way you can imagine. About halfway through the trip I switched rolls with another camper and became a sternsman, with this switch came the responsibility of carrying the canoe on portages. For my 110-pound body that was a big struggle, especially on the longer portages. When I would get upset and frustrated after dropping the canoe on the trail Noah would always be there to help me get it back up onto my shoulders. The longest portage of the trip which was a little over a mile was the biggest struggle for me but Noah followed me the entire way, every time I dropped my canoe he would drop his, help me pick mine up, and give me some words of encouragement to keep me going, we probably repeated that process 5-6 times on that one portage and that was the moment that I learned that I can do hard things even when it seems impossible. I learned what perseverance meant, and all of that was due to Noah’s tough love, always pushing me to be the best version of myself.
That very same year at camp Sam brought the energy to Junior Camp. As the department head of sailing Sam was not pleased when the kids in fishing class would swamp sailboats on their way back to the dock so Sam declared war! Fishing vs Sailing!!!! This war was the highlight of my summer. As a part of the fishing army I had it out for Sam, one afternoon we even went as far as to catch a rock bass off of the dock and put it in a water bottle which we placed in Sam’s bunk. These pranks went back and forth all summer until Sam accepted his defeat. He never fails to bring a smile and start the fun, he was missed a lot last summer at camp.
~ William Espinosa (17)
