WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD: 7/8/12

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

“If you ever get the chance to see a camp counselor at work, you’ve seen one of the world’s many unrecognized superheroes. Camp counselors are a particular breed of humans. We are ordinary people in a new and extraordinary situation known as, camp. A camp counselor is a slew of professions thrown together. We are thrown in the middle of nowhere and told to do the impossible. Manage a group of children for a few days with little supplies, few staff and next to no pay. We are teachers instructing naïve city-slicker-campers how to navigate the unknown territory known as “nature”. We are therapists, comforting the homesick kids and attempting to bring forth the inner young adults inside. We are janitors, cleaning the most disgusting of outhouses. We are expert outdoorsmen, managing to keep a group of campers alive in the woods for a few days. We are naturalists, identifying every plant, bug, fish, twig, and pebble the campers stumble upon. We are repairmen, patching a hole in the tent or a leaky pipe in the shower house. We are doctors, from scraped knees to the flu to sunburns galore-we have seen it all and cured it all. Somehow every morning at camp we lace up our boots, bandage our blisters and sing another song for the umpteenth time. No matter how long the work hours or how obnoxious the campers we have a driving need to come back every summer. We give up modern necessities, family vacations and hanging out with friends for early mornings, screaming scouts, and a scratchy voice. Being a camp counselor means working twenty-four hour shifts, sacrificing your health for the campers and skipping a shower here and there. By the end of the summer, the thought of air conditioning and cable sounds like a dream. But everyone chokes back a tear or two as they turn the corner on the last day and it the highway heading home whispering to the summer breeze, ‘I’ll be back soon’.”

Wow. When I entered into this journey I had no idea what I was in for. The past six weeks have been some of the most exhausting, frustrating, hilarious, and most importantly rewarding weeks of my life. Admittedly I went into this experience naively excited to see my lifelong camp friends and spend another blissful summer at the place I love so much, but I emerge from my first girls session at Camp Marymount with valuable knowledge, priceless memories, and a happy heart. I wish I could have recorded every second of the last six weeks and put it on display for you all just so that you could catch a glimpse of the wonderful whirlwind I’m wrapped up in but between chasing after little ones and stealing sleep between brushing hair and putting on a happy face, I determined to allow myself to take it all in and report to you all after.

I sit in the conference room of our lodge writing to you all. My final campers have just left and my cabin is spotless…deserted and lonely is more like it. There are no candy wrappers hidden between the sheets, spiders needing to be captured by a superhero counselor, or sweet faces waking me up in the middle of the night because of a bad dream. As I wipe the tears away from my face and procrastinate completing my looming staff evaluations, I can’t help but smile back on my time here so far. I have no idea what it is like to be a parent but I can finally appreciate the true value of a child. My heart aches a little to think that I will never again see some of these sweet girlies that I have called my campers. They have been rotten, and angry, and upset, and high-strung, but they have been so incredibly wonderful and their little time at camp has contributed to the most gratifying experience that I have thus far experienced in my eighteen years. After six weeks of thinking time I have still not determined the best way to present my stories/memories/and love of this place to you all so I am going to spit it out the best way I know how and hope for the best! Let me preface by saying that I am not allowed to include pictures of my campers, which is very upsetting, but I will hopefully make up with the pictures of this beautiful place and my own great friends that have helped me to grow and learn this summer. I love and miss you all and hope you are well! So without further adieu, Camp Marymount Girls Session 2012:

Kids have no regard for what you do and don’t like…and it’s awesome. All of the things I thought that I couldn’t do and thought that I detested were immediately taken away with the wind when ten little girls showed up on the tiny shoe-clad front porch of my cabin. They don’t care about personal space, they for sure don’t have any regard for your sleeping schedule, and they are convinced the world revolves around each of them, a concept particularly challenging for me as I too am often convinced of this. Anyways these are a number of things my girls ~~forced~~ helped me to conquer this summer:

· I HATE having my neck touched. I can’t tell you why and I know that it is strange but I freak out and cringe and I just really don’t enjoy it. Well guess what kids LOVE doing…touching your neck, hanging on your neck, drawing on your neck (?), making and adorning you with necklaces. You name it, they love it. Needless to say, I have a higher tolerance of neck contact thanks to my little monkeys.

· I also dislike holding hands. I think it’s strange and sweaty and your hand holder either drags you along or lollygags behind you. I have, until recently, seen it as a waste of time and embarrassment. Guess what else kids love to do…hold hands!!! I challenge any one of you to test me on this nowadays. I love holding hands. I’ll hold your hand when I’m your buddy, when we are on our way to lunch, tying your shoes, watching stars, opening doors, getting water, making beds, sitting on the ground, swinging, fill in the blank…

· The word “panties” is foul. For many years it has been the bane of my existence but it has come to my attention that every parent in the English-speaking word has taught it to their young daughters as an appropriate term for their underwear. At first this was hard to grapple with but after washing, folding, and picking up off the ground about 14,000 pairs of panties I have finally learned to embrace the word. So put your big girl panties on and deal with it.

· As much as I hate to admit it, I have the worst patience of anyone I know. I am short tempered to a fault and I like things done a certain way, my way. This is not conducive to looking after children and after serious work and, give or take 400 girls, I think I can comfortably say that my patience has improved.

As much as I learned from the girls this summer, I like to think I left them with a few life skills as well.

· Any girl who had interaction with me this summer can now dance. You’re welcome. I am no shy wallflower when it comes to busting a move and when there was an opportunity to, those girls and I were grooving.

· Manners. As sassy as I am, my mama and dad taught me to say “yes ma’am”, “no sir”, “please”, and “thank you”. Those girls went home with some words that will get them through life.

· I can’t really take credit for this next gem of valuable knowledge because it is something that I learned from my dad but if I taught these girls anything this summer I hope that it is this: things can be replaced, people can’t. When you put an 8 year old in a new environment with 9 other girls she doesn’t know and 2 teenage girls claiming authority, they cling to their upbringing and individuality. Suddenly every towel that is labeled with their last name is their most prized possession and it is truly the end of the world if another girl drinks your last kool aid or steps on your trunk. The lost flashlights, borrowed socks, and intrusion of personal space created drama like I have never seen but I did my best to pass onto these girls the value of the other girls surrounding them. They will never meet girls like this again in their life in an environment that allows them to be exactly who they are, good and bad. I desperately hope that my girls learned to appreciate and cherish each other as I have cherished them and let the petty, little things slide.

What I learned this summer, including but not limited to party tricks, things about myself, others, and this place I call home during the summer.

· People are amazing. There are wonderful people in this world that will impress you, care for you, and never cease to amaze you. They will catch the spider hanging above your bed, huddle under a bunk with you in an effort to escape crazed bats in the cabin, handle crazy parents for you, perform magic tricks for your kids for the sole intention to entertain them. They will cook you food, and clean up your mess, and teach you how to pretend like you know what you’re talking about even when you don’t. They will have your back and wipe the dirt off it when you fall. People are amazing and if I forgot this, I found it again this summer.

· How to hang a hammock- a truly underappreciated art that becomes so valuable during the summertime.

· How to safely and correctly jump off a 40-foot cliff.

· How to drive a golf cart

· How to lead horses on a trail

· How to coral horses that have gone buck wild on a trail

· How to make the best grilled cheese you have ever eaten in your whole life

· How to find and kill lice

· Telling the difference between zits and impetigo

· How to write a postcard

· How to make a fire with no lighter fluid/fire stick/or anything useful that would be helpful in lighting a fire

· All of the following is flammable: rain jackets, bug spray, Nalgene water bottles, and grass…also cars!

· “Snack parties” are terrible ideas! Kids should never be allowed to eat whatever they want in bottomless amounts.

This next bit is going to be a real hodge podge because I honestly have no idea how to present all of my memories from this summer. I am going to list great things that happened this summer and if you would like to hear the full story let me know and I will drone on until you’re bored with camp stories and me for that matter.

· I jumped off a 40-foot cliff in a rock quarry in Fairview, TN. It was amazing and one of the most exhilarating things that I have ever done.

· I attempted to do a dive off a zip line and failed miserably with a belly flop.

· I rode horses every other day and have never felt happier. I learned that they are like big dogs and I determined that someday I will own one.

· I danced my tush off at Marymount prom in a red sequined dress that I have owned since the age of 6.

· My campers wrapped me in an entire industrial roll of toilet paper as punishment for using too many tissues.

· I was flagpoled-an action consisting of the entire cabin of eight-year-old girls sneaking out of the cabin at night to hang my PANTIES on the flagpole for the entire camp to see.

· I raised the flag 9 times, 5 times for having the cleanest cabin.

· I watched thirty minutes of one of my favorite movies, Ferngully

· I burnt countless numbers of hot dogs over a makeshift fire and pretended they were gourmet for my girls

· I ate a dish called “Dorito Diablo”. It was disgusting and I won’t be eating it anymore.

· My cabin got second place in Marymount’s version of the old west gold rush.

· I saw 4 snakes.

· I hit the target in archery.

· I signed my name on the archery range, the arts and crafts hut, and my cabin.

· I made new friends.

· I had more Sonic cherry limeades than should be legal

· I made a slip and slide out of a very long tarp, some body wash, and a hose

· I captured a goat