It’s been a while since I have posted anything, but the
internet here at camp is sketchy at best, so unless I’m home the odds of me
uploading a blog post are slim to none (because of this I apologize for what is
to come, they will all be in groups from here on out)
Anyway, camp has officially started… well kind of. I have
been here for nearly two weeks now, planning for the summer ahead. At first I
was really nervous for this job; actually I was a little bit terrified. If high
school to university seemed like a hill on the path of life, going from
counselor to program director seemed like a mountain. For the past four summers
I have a been either a counselor or a counselor in training, so to leave that
position would have been weird to start with, let alone moving all the way up
to program director. When I applied for this job I was following the “reach for
the moon, if you miss at least you’ll land among the stars” philosophy. I
thought I would apply for it, not really expecting to reach it, and then be satisfied
with female head counselor, or if worst came to worst, counselor. When I got
the email offering me the position for the summer, I was sitting in the rink
watching world seniors curling. I read my email on my phone, impatiently
waiting for the stupid internet to load the document, and then I rushed outside
and called my mother and told her the good news. It was crazy, I was so excited, I felt like I
had overshot the moon by miles and landed on Pluto, or in another galaxy all
together. It made all the waiting worthwhile just to receive that message. Then the nervousness set in, then the full out
stress, not sure if I was meant for this job. This year was the first time I
have ever been nervous for staff training. I think the anticipation was worse than
my first day on the job, three long summers ago. That’s crazy in itself; this is my third
summer working at Scotian Glen. So much has changed since then, yet it still
feels like it just happened. But anyway,
during staff training, the excitement started building, then the nervousness,
then more excitement. It was a crazy weekend, followed by some more crazy
emotion filled days as I started to prepare to come here for the summer.
I think the “biggest” thing that makes this job seem so much
more than a counselor is the responsibility and trust bestowed on me. For my
first week I was at camp working 100% independent. Tout seule. Solo. Nobody was
here to oversee my work, to make sure I was working, to keep me on task, and
that was wild. I didn’t have any real deadlines, I was just expected to work. A
lot of it was self directed work too. I mean I have the overall task of
planning Children’s Gathering, Holiday Camps, Moms and Tots, Missions Team and
Officers Camp, but other than that, no specific plan of action. You know those
essays where you get an outline of what you have to include, and all you need
to do to get an A is to follow that outline, this job has turned out to be the
exact opposite. It’s more like those essays where you are given a broad topic and
have to write about it, making sure to include every little important detail.
It’s stressful, but at the same time, has taught me in one short week how
essential organization is, and how thorough you really need to be. I actually
love this job so much. I am still nervous about some of the upcoming events,
just because I am expected to be the leader, the one they run to when things go
wrong, the one who takes the fall when something happens, but it’s so exciting.
It’s definitely preparing me for future projects J
I guess that’s about it for right now, I’ll apologize in
advance for the plethora of blog post that are going to be posted this weekend,
that’s what happens when you don’t have outside communication for a little
while ;)
Until next time,
Britt
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