When you hear camp counselor, what do you think? Do you think of the high energy and smiling face when you drop your child off at camp? Do you think of someone who gets to have fun all day? Well, I am here to tell you, being a camp counselor is life changing!

When I first applied to be a camp counselor, I had no idea what that meant. I thought I was just getting a fun summer job for some extra cash. Little did I know that there is more to it than that.

I remember my interview clear as day. I was sitting in a school cafeteria with the director surrounded by children. I later found out those children were apart of the before and after school programs. I felt so over dressed in my nice dress and flats. At the end of my interview the director looked at me and said: "Here is where I try to scare you." Obviously, I had no idea what she meant. She continued: "This job is incredibly difficult. You are going to be on your feet in the hot sun all day". She was not kidding.

First day of training, I got to meet the rest of the staff. Everyone had a different story to tell and experiences under their belt. Team building was interesting; not only did it help us have fun and learn as a team, we made fools of ourselves. In order to work at a summer camp, you have to prepare and be willing to make a fool out of yourself. This training, however, didn't prepare me for the real thing.

All I knew on that first day that I would have the youngest campers, who were about 5-6 years old. Once the buses rolled in and the children piled out, I had no idea what I was doing. I was given an attendance sheet, a partner, and I had to find all of the children in my group. Once I did that I brought them to put their stuff down, went over rules, and then off we went to the activities for the day.

That summer was chaos for me. I had never worked in such an environment. My group was always late, my partner knew everyone at camp so he was always off, and I had no idea how to keep children entertained outside. I had to make sure everyone had a lunch, sunscreen and bug spray several times a day, not to mention water. To go swimming, I had to make sure my kids changed into their bathing suits, and all of their clothes got back into their bags. Sounds easy...until you lose a kid's sock at pool, another kid's shirt in the bathroom, and another kid's shoes at lake.

On that last day, when the children I spent eight weeks with got on the buses and I waved them off, I have never cried so hard in my life. Yes, it was partly because I had never worked so hard in my life (so I thought at 16) but because I learned something from every camper I met.

Every camper taught me something about myself that I didn't know. I was taught how to be a mermaid, how to sing like no one is watching, how to dance in the rain, and how to use my imagination. The kids that came to camp don't always have a perfect life at home, but my job was to make sure they had a perfect day at camp every day.

I was lucky enough to be a camp counselor for two years after that. It was one of those jobs that, no matter how much experience you had, you were never 100% prepared for what each day would throw at you. Even though I am unable to be a camp counselor this summer, I still hold Camp Yomechas in my heart forever.