For most of us young people, summer is the time to save up the money we will need for the upcoming school year. Whether we work at local restaurants, babysit our neighbor's kids, or earn our dough as camp counselors, a fair amount of our summer days and nights are spent hustling around doing our best to stay in good graces with our employers.
As a camp counselor, myself for nine years now, I can attest to the job’s responsibilities. Although we are required to serve as chaperones to the kids at camp, we have come to also assume the roles of medic, mediator, mom, and mentor.
Medic
To my understanding, most summer camps do not have a nurse on site. I know mine does not. Therefore, we are responsible for handling injuries that occur. Now, by injuries I mean small cuts and scrapes, or a minor bump on the head. God forbid there were more extreme ones, we would call the parents of the camper and hand those off to the professionals. As we ready the materials to patch up these minor wounds, we must also console these kids. While some are tough guys and take it like a champ, there are others, mostly the younger ones, who don’t handle pain well. So at times, we may need to crack a joke or two to bring a smile to their faces.
Mediator
Although we would like to say that everything is always hunky dory at camp, this is not the case. Kids grow fussy and cranky, and at times, pick fights with their fellow campers. In these situations, we counselors are called upon to resolve the issue at hand. It usually goes down like this:
Susie comes up to a counselor and says that Sophie isn’t letting her play with her, so then the counselor finds Sophie and brings the girls together to talk about the problem. The counselor hears both sides of the story and may say something along the lines of “Look Sophie, you and Susie are good friends, and it isn’t very nice to leave her out. You wouldn’t like it if Susie wasn’t letting you play with her, now would you?” Then Sophie says no and they run off and are attached at the hip the rest of the day.
This is a very common and small issue that counselors deal with day in and day out. There are others though that aren’t so innocent, and require a bit more work to rectify, sometimes even a call home to mom.
Mom
In the beginning weeks of camp, some of the younger kids have a hard time adjusting to the absence of their mom. When we realize this, we do our best to intervene and pair them up with kids their own age that we presume could be friends with. While they may be shy at first, more often than not, we notice that these kids fit in perfectly and cry less and less for their moms.
With their mom's not around to remind the kids of things or assist with tasks, we are also there to step in. We are constantly reminding them of using manners, collecting all their belongings, and cleaning up after themselves. In addition, we assist with tying shoes, preparing food, applying sunscreen, and even combing hair. Although we could never really replace their moms (nor do we want to), we are happy to serve as a fill in from the time they get to camp until the time they leave.
Model
Perhaps the greatest role that counselors get the opportunity to be are models, as in role models. Although we may not realize it at first, the kids at camp look up to us. They see the way we dress, the way we talk, and the way we carry ourselves, and they wish to mimic all that we do. For that reason, it is important for us to act with the utmost behavior. We must not wear clothes that are revealing or that hinder our ability to do our job well. We cannot use language that is inappropriate, for if we do we could receive complaints from parents that little Johnny said a curse word and said he learned it from a counselor at camp. Not only will that cause detriment to the reputation of the counselor, it will also negatively affect the reputation of the camp as a whole.
On the grander scale, we must conduct ourselves in a manner that is conducive of respect. We should respect our fellow counselors and of course our employer. When kids see that we treat people our age with respect they are likely to do the same to their peers.
Being a camp counselor is a fun way to spend the summer and a fairly easy way to earn the cash that we want. We get to spend the days out in the sun instead of cooped up in a restaurant. We get the chance to interact with kids younger than us for a change and show them the ropes of what it’s like to be a young adult.
More importantly, we learn to grow ourselves. Working with little kids has the ability to teach us a lot about ourselves. For instance, it may make us aware of how we handle conflicts, how we work with others, and how we conduct ourselves in group settings.
I have enjoyed my time as a camp counselor and I hope that I have made a positive impact on the kids that I have had the pleasure of knowing.
