Over this past summer I tried something completely new to me. I got a job at a summer camp in Upstate New York. I had never had a job working at a summer camp. Nor had I ever gotten a job working with kids, and to be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
The whole process started when I received an email from my Lacrosse Coach. The headline was simple.. . "If anyone's interested..." Attached to her email was an email from the director of this particular summer camp. It was requesting that anyone with lacrosse experience who would be interested in working as a lacrosse instructor at their camp for the summer to please send in an application. So I thought, "Wow! How fun would that be! Getting paid to be at camp and play lacrosse! I'd LOVE to do that!!"
I applied. I was hired. I was going to spend the eight weeks working at a sleep away camp in New York. Everything was right with the world.
Truth be told, it was BY FAR the hardest thing I had ever done. When I arrived at camp I was asked what age group I would like to be a counselor for. "I want the Debs," and thats who I got. The little girls in camp. Ages 6,7, and 8. Most of them having never been away from their parents for more than a week or so. After reading that most of you probably have looks something similar to this..
Now, I want to make something clear. I LOVE these kids. Any one of my co-counselors would agree with me (I hope) that those eight weeks I spent with them were some of the funniest/craziest/wildest/loving/adorable/heartwarming weeks of my entire life. I can't even begin to document everything that made me laugh because I just don't have enough time to write it all.
Also, in so many ways it was an intense learning process for me. Essentially, I was a stand in mom for 25 young girls for 2 months. I fed them, went with them everywhere, dressed them in the morning and at night, wiped their faces, held them when they cried, held them when they were happy, played with them, read them stories, cleaned up after them. Told them I loved them. I even slept in the same room with them.
View from my bed. Sorry its obstructed with children, but that kind of sums up my summer.
That being said, it was A LOT of work. The first two weeks with the kids were the most mentally, emotionally, and physically draining weeks I've ever experienced. I must have broken down on the phone to at least one person a night, and I wasn't alone. Every single one of my co counselors were having similar feelings. The feelings of being used and lied to. Lead to believe so many false assumptions. Of being throughly beaten down everyday by children, and being away from everyone you love and everything familiar to you.
We all talked about quitting. Saying that we weren't getting paid enough to be put through such hell everyday. Our families and friends agreed.
But we just couldn't quit.
It was kind of an unspoken agreement between the all of us, that no matter how bad it got, we were all in it together, and that everyday that passed was one more day closer to the end. Whenever one of us would break down due to any number of things (carrying 15 sleeping bags up a hill while covered in poison oak and then having to carry them back down because the kids didn't feel like sleeping outside, or getting smashed in the face with a water balloon from a foot away and then having kids scream in your face about how much you suck, or getting yelled at by a 16 year old girl and your boss for not being able to get a little girl to get dressed in time, etc.) we would all band together and convince each other that we could make it through.
And we did!!!!
The friendships I developed with these people are powerful. We shared an experience unlike anything else. We saw each other at our lowest and highest points. A circle of shoulders to cry on and countless laughs and stories between us. I love you all.
Honestly, I could spend the next week typing this post, but no one can truly understand unless you lived it. I hope you can at least understand that.
Always a Friend,
Kasey
