I'm in my second semester of Purdue majoring in Accounting. My goal is to become a CPA in a few years and work with a great company with great people. With ambitions like these my friends never understood why I kept working at a summer camp during the summer.

Wouldn't it be better to find some form of internship or work for a local business? Yeah, probably, but from what I got out of my time with kids is what I consider crucial in order to make it when I graduate.

For starters, they remind you to be cheerful. They don't know what's going on in politics nor can they spell economics. They're just excited that you promised to play with them during pool time. They laugh at bugs, at themselves, and definitely at you. It's a relief to be surrounded by so much joy when in my day-to-day life I stray from all the joy because there were more serious matters that required my attention.

Researchers and professionals around the globe confirm there is little positive correlation between happiness and adulthood. Which makes sense with our crowded schedules. In becoming an adult you adapt to a routine, do your work, and deal with the distractions that pull you left and right. The bubbly cheerfulness kids provide helps us remember that even though our world has some serious problems that doesn't mean you stop laughing.

Besides being happy they bring back to mind the import virtue of being patient. Patience has become a thing of the past in modern-day America. We don't like commercials. The five seconds you have to wait to watch a YouTube video is agonizing. And Ramen noodles could not take any longer to make in the microwave. Our ancestors would be laughing at us for how impatient we have become.

Kids take us back to basics. It takes me thirty seconds to throw on shoes and grab a backpack. However, for kids, you're lucky if they can accomplish all that in five minutes. You want to yell at them to hurry up, but you can't. Every time when my little gang of eight-year-olds were taking forever I had to force myself to take a step back. I was getting aggravated for something too small to matter.

They were still doing everything I asked just at a slower rate. On the days where I did rush them towels would be lost, some shoes would be untied, and I found myself taking even more time to fix it all. Because something can be done quickly doesn't necessarily mean it should. Good things come in good time and I hope to make note of that when I'm preparing reports, presentations, or working with coworkers.

Any parent or camp counselor will agree with this last point when I say they teach you flexibility the most. With my campers, it's impossible to get anywhere on time or, dare I say, early. Strict schedules become loose guidelines. You know that being on time for arts n' crafts is important, but your campers know that they have to go use the bathroom, find their sunscreen, and little Morgan just realized she left her backpack at the chapel.

I wanted to throw a party when my kids had their tennis shoes and jeans on and were in line for trail rides. At the end of the day, most activities didn't go as planned, but my partners and I made it work anyways. I began my summers set on following the schedules I had planned every week, but variables I didn't even think of taught me to do my best on the spot and make it work. After two years of this, I challenge my future employer to throw me a curve ball.

All things considered, I firmly believe that what you need to learn in order to be successful will never be taught by working in your specific career choice alone. Life experience trumps working at a desk all summer. I found that children are one sure-fire way to improve yourself. There are minimal prerequisites and before you know it you have a group of munchkins following you around.

Being a camp counselor isn't a job reserved for only future teachers, but for future engineers, doctors, and psychologists. These kids don't even know it, but those tiny teachers gave me more tools every summer to use in all my future endeavors. I would give them an apple as a thank you, but then I would have to convince them that fruit is good for them.