For the past four years, I’ve worked at a summer camp, teaching archery and counseling a cabin of twelve campers, aged thirteen to sixteen. Most people say, “Why don’t you grow up and get a real job, like the rest of your friends?” First of all, I get paid for this position, so there’s no room for anyone to say that a camp counselor is not a “real job”. Second of all, I’m doing what I love, so why should anyone ridicule that? Being a counselor has given me more self-confidence than I’ve ever had before.
Like I said before, I’ve worked at the same camp for the past four years, as an archery instructor. People that work at the camp always ask me, “Why archery? That’s your first choice every single year when you’re applying for staff. Don’t you want to try something different?” For me, the job is teaching children a new skill, and the reward is watching their own confidence grow. For some campers, it’s scary going to a new camp doing new things with new people that they’ve never met before, and my personal goal is to make them feel safe in an environment where making mistakes is an okay thing to do. Once their confidence blossoms, they start to help their friends who are struggling. The growth that I see in the campers who take archery is beautiful, and I am always so proud of those kids who go on to help their friends, because those are the campers that embody the spirit of camp.
Being a camp counselor can give you so much self-confidence; I’m a person who has pretty low self-esteem. However, when I think of my job as a counselor, and all of the lives I’ve touched, I think to myself, “They wouldn’t keep hiring you if you didn’t bring something meaningful to this camp.” At the beginning of the summer of 2016, one staff member did some rough calculations and figured out how many lives that each person on staff touched through being a counselor. My number was 2,085. 2,085 campers’ lives have been changed—because of me. This is a number that will stick with me for the rest of my life. This number is proof that I have changed lives for the better. This is proof that I am a good person, and something I can look at when I’m feeling negatively about myself. Not only does that number prove that I’m a good counselor, but many campers have come up to me and said that I was their favorite counselor. I realized this year that when kids ask me if I’m coming back next year, it means they want to come back to camp so they can see me. This is a powerful thing to hear from someone who is either sixteen or someone who is eight. It is proof that you’ve touched someone’s life. It’s proof that you mean something to that child. Finally, it’s proof that being a camp counselor is more than just making sure kids don’t get hurt. It’s more than making sure all of your campers are present and accounted for. It’s so much more than just teaching a kid how to shoot an arrow with a bow.
Being a camp counselor means providing friendship and safety for kids who may not have it at home. Being a camp counselor means making sure a child who doesn’t get three meals a day at home gets to eat as much as they want at each meal we serve. Being a camp counselor is hugging the campers who are in tears on Friday night during the peace in chapel, letting them know that camp will always be there for them when they need it, and smiling at them when you sing the staff song while they put their arms around each other and cry. Being a camp counselor is maintaining a safe environment for campers to be themselves, when they may not be able to at home. Obviously, being a camp counselor is so much more than working outside without air conditioning for three months. It’s a rewarding experience, and it’s certainly much more than a “real job”.
