Just like so many other people, I look forward to summer all year long. While some people look forward to spending their days at the beach or on a family vacation, I look forward to something rather different: my summer job. To me, summers would be incomplete if I didn't spend them doing one of the most difficult and rewarding jobs I can think of.

I've spent the past four summers working as a camp counselor at the day camp I attended as a kid. I spend eight weeks, which are split into two-week sessions, looking after a group of 20 campers with the help of a male co-counselor. My co and I lead the group through a daily schedule that includes fun activities that allow campers to express themselves in different ways and discover their strengths. Some campers find it easy to express themselves during Art Electives, while others take healthy risks and discover new strengths during Outdoor Electives.

While we help our campers grow and discover new things about themselves, we form some really meaningful relationships with them. Whether we spend a Boating period out on a canoe talking about school, their friends, and their families or spend a Sports period competing on the soccer field, we connect to each of our campers in different ways. Each camper-counselor relationship is unique, but they are all equally important. Over the past four summers, I have formed "friendships" with my campers that really mean the world to me and that keep me coming back to camp every summer.

Not only have I formed some really special relationships with campers, but I have also formed some great friendships with my co-counselors over the years. We spend 40 hours a week, eight weeks a summer working closely with one another, so it is almost impossible not to become friends with them. I've been lucky to be paired with some phenomenal male co-counselors over the past few summers who love camp just as much as I do. They each have made my job as a counselor so much easier and I appreciate them all for their unique qualities that make them phenomenal counselors.

Camp may really be all about the kids, but I feel myself growing every summer I return to camp. I grow not only as a leader, but also as a person. At camp, I can be my true, wild and crazy self without the fear of being judged. I can dance around and sing at the top of my lungs on Karaoke Thursdays, dress in crazy outfits on Fun Friday, wear Crocs everyday, and just be goofy, knowing that other counselors are going to be doing the same thing. Of course, some of my campers look at me like I am crazy, but eventually they all come to realize that it's kind of cool to just be yourself and not care what others think of you, the same lesson I learn year after year.

There have been plenty of times people have told me to consider a new summer job that has more flexible hours and would allow me more time at the beach or on vacation, but I don't want that. I'd rather spend my summers running around camp looking after a bunch of wild 12 year olds than scoop ice cream. I'd rather form such strong bonds with campers that I spend the last day of camp in tears because I'll miss them all so much than become a waitress for the summer. And I'd rather learn more about myself as an individual than find a different job. I love being a camp counselor and will spend my summers as one for as long as I can.