This past summer, I found that working as a camp counselor allows you to develop parts of yourself that have previously never had an environment in which flourish. Camp creates situations that force growth, situations which wouldn’t commonly occur outside of a camp environment. How someone reacts to situations defines who they are. Never is this so evident than in a camp setting.
As a counselor, I spent late nights sitting up with my homesick campers telling desperate stories I thought would make them laugh. I showed campers how to lift rocks slowly from the edge of the stream to look for salamanders. I listened to horror stories of home lives and pasts, and I even called Child Protective Services a time or two. Once, after a particularly intense bout of rain, I taught my campers how to mud wrestle. The next week I had a cabin so hostile and dismissive of each other that I used my one forty-five minute break a day to try and hold back tears. I experienced almost everything camp could throw at me — all in the space of nine weeks.
I would never have dealt with situations of this caliber if I had not decided to come to camp. Once the summer started, I had to make the conscious decision to critically consider my misadventures and celebrations and decide how to conduct myself over the next week. What had caused the breakdown in communication between me and my campers? What were the experiences my campers valued most, and how could I continue to make those happen? I could take the events of the past week at face value, or I could make an effort to learn from the good and the bad.
These experiences forced me to grow as a counselor and learn how to deeply care for my campers — who I had only met the previous day. When I received my girls at the beginning of the week, I instantly became a mother of ten, with one notable occasion of twenty. I was their lifeline, their protector, their encourager, and whatever else they needed for the rest of the week. I needed to become someone who could deeply and fiercely love within a few short moments.
We are told to love your neighbor, but this was liv- ing it. I can only think of a few other occasions where I had experienced this kind of love. One cannot work on a summer camp staff without being changed in one way or another, profoundly changed. Aspects of personality which have never been explored before have a chance to develop and grow into something distinct — a progression of your- self which could not happen in any other environment.
Working at a summer camp feels wild, but is valuable. It allows growth. And, to tell the truth, everyone needs at least one summer spent running around outside with children.
