Thank You Dad
- Sardarni Jasgeet Kaur
Four years ago, my father asked me to go to a camp to which I refused initially but he was adamant that I must go. Half-heartedly I filled the forms and a few weeks later, there I was, The 73rd International Sikh Youth Camp. Till date I owe my thanks to my father who did not accept my refusal.
As a Sikh girl growing amidst all the vulnerabilities that could have easily seized me from my culture, I often asked myself that why do only Sikhs need to be the way they had been since centuries? Why do not we accept and follow the changes? I pestered myself with such and alike
questions and I had my own silly and unacceptable
(to others) answers to befool my own self.
Had I not attended the IIGS camps, I would have
remained in oblivion my whole life. Everything
that happened on the camp seemed to answer all
my questions.
It was not long ago that I realized that there was
no point in questioning ourselves, questioning the creation
of that great Almighty, if we said that we love Him and
believe in Him. In our alike identities, lie our strengths. How the most difficult
(at least they seem difficult) questions have the simplest of answers!
Jasgeet Kaur
The IIGS camp is a home away from home. Everyone at the camp will make you feel that you are a part of their family. The counselors will love you as a part of their own real families, even more. They will give all the love and respect that a family member deserves. And above all, the camp will make you realize that Sikhi runs in your veins like blood. You just have to know, accept and respect that.
The counselors do their best to clear us of our doubts, to answer our unanswerable questions and bring us all the more closer to our origins. For these ten days, all the campers, from the youngest to the eldest, are away from the hush bush of the material world and closer to that One.
The morning and evening Diwans will all make us feel and experience His presence. It makes us aware where we come from and the long way that is yet to be traveled. And how can we miss the fun part! Waking up early in the mornings, lining up, making the younger ones ready, the parade with all its preparations, the movies, the picnic, midnight hostel talks and how to forget the once stranger people becoming our lifelong friends!
You come here once, you will want to come here every year because of the fact that we realize how these camps keep us grounded to our roots, help us fly like a free bird at the same time and achieve the impossible.