For the past four years, I've been a camp counselor at the same camp. I LOVED being a camp counselor, and I also loved the camp I worked for. This summer, I was given the opportunity to be the site director for the camp instead of a counselor. I was so excited to try this new job and be co-directors with one of my best friends. I knew that it would be a lot more work to be a director than a counselor, but I didn't know much more of what I was getting myself into. As the summer has gone on, I have learned a ton through this new job.
The hardest adjustment stepping into this new role as a site director is that I am in charge of a lot of people. My co-director and I are in charge of almost 100 campers and 12 counselors. Dealing with one hundred campers between the ages of 4-to-12 makes for a very chaotic environment. Even though we have 12 counselors, the site directors are responsible if something goes wrong since we are supposed to be instructing the counselors to do the right thing. That's a lot of pressure. Of course, we hope that the counselors know what to do to give their kids a great camp experience, but they don't always know what to do.
Speaking of the counselors, that brings me to my next point: It is really hard to be your friends' boss. Of course I want to have fun with my friends, but at the end of the day, this is a job, and we are being trusted with the lives of children. At first, I felt really uncomfortable critiquing my friends and giving them directions. As the days went by, it got easier because I realized that if I want the camp to run smoothly, I need to do my job and communicate with the counselors if there is an issue.
As hard as it is to be my friends' boss, it's even harder to be my sister's boss. My sister, who is a year and a half younger than me, is one of my counselors. She decided that since we are related, she doesn't need to follow any rules or listen to directions. Talk about an issue. It has been really hard to be her boss, but my co-director and I agreed on a system where she's really in charge of my sister since she will actually listen to her.
Another unexpected turn when becoming site director was the weather. Bad weather might change the kids' activities, but it doesn't change the directors' duties. Rain or shine, my job stays the same. Every morning, my co-director and I have to stand outside and greet each kid and their parents before sending them inside to their counselor. When it's sunny and 75, it's an easy, fun task. When it's pouring rain, it's not as enjoyable. Last week, it started raining while we were outside eating lunch, so we sent the counselors and kids inside, while my co-director and I stayed outside cleaning up the trash that the kids left at the park. No matter the weather conditions, we do whatever we have to do for this camp.
Stepping into a new position and dealing with a lot of change was definitely not easy but totally worth it. Even though I get soaked by the rain, have to talk to angry parents and deal with the stress of close to 100 campers, I wouldn't change a thing. I've learned so much through this experience, and I know the learning is not over yet.
