Working at a summer camp can be a lot of work. It can be emotionally and physically draining but also one of the most rewarding jobs you can ever have. You get to experience all types of coworkers, kids, and parents who all have one thing in common: a love for camp.
1. Being Excited For Camp To Start
You literally start your countdown for the next summer as soon as camp ends. It's your favorite place to be so wanting to get back into shorts and a t-shirt make winter almost unbearable.
2. Ready To Eat All Of The Good Camp Food
You live for the salad bar, chicken fingers, and spaghetti night. Camp food is a Godsend when you're growing up and even when you're a counselor. You always have your favorite meals.
3. Having To Eat Those Same Meals All Summer
You really want to eat another chicken leg, but that's the 35th one this summer. So you start trying to get creative. Using the salad bar to make your own subway sandwich. You also make sure you stockpile plenty of snacks on your nights off.
4. Sleepless Nights
You always hope when you hear your name at 3 AM, it is really just little Susie talking in her sleep again. But nonetheless, you stay wide awake for 20 minutes until you feel like the coast is clear.
5. Tan Lines
Between the sunglasses, the one-piece bathing suits, the staff shirts, Chaco tans, your tan lines are usually all over the place by the end of the summer. Your body turns into twenty different shades before the end of the summer.
5. You Build Strong Relationships
Between your coworkers and the kids you have, you build strong, meaningful relationships. All of which have the capability to last a lifetime. You meet kids from all types of backgrounds that all end up holding a special place in your heart. And all of the other counselors who can always be a shoulder to lean on.
6. Treating Every Week As The First
As a good friend said, "we know how to be both the happiest and most exhausted we will ever be in our lives." You start out strong and as the weeks go on you learn that sleeping for 15 hours straight actually isn't all that crazy. Because after all, it might be your 5th week but it's most kids first.
7. Money Isn't Everything
You work around the clock for five days a week and don't make all that much. But you learn the payment isn't a monetary reward, but rather in the experience and memories. This is one of the best lessons you can learn in life, money isn't everything.
8. How To Aid Homesickness
Calling home is never the answer. But when you learn how to be a friend to a camper and show them how great camp can be, they'll never want to go home either.
9. It's Okay To Be Yourself
A job requirement is to have fun, so make sure your kids are having fun. Often you're required to sing songs and do skits in front of a few hundred people every single week. It's okay to be silly and loud, or it's okay to be quiet and stay behind the scenes. Everyone is different and that's what makes camp so special. You can be yourself and have a great time while helping kids have the best week of their life.
10. God Can Change Lives When You're At Camp
Whether you're religious or not, when you come to camp there are lessons to be learned, and the bible can be a huge part of that. You learn there are things in the bible that can follow throughout your life. And there is power in worship and growing your faith.
