What I Learned As A Summer Camp Staffer

The thing about working at a summer camp especially one like mine is the fact that it feels like you are in a little time loop. You do close to the same thing every day for months. We call it the camp bubble. Working out there we are in the middle of nowhere. We aren’t allowed to carry our phones during the day and most things that aren’t camp related take a back seat when you are so far away. It’s almost its own little world, separate from the real world. It’s easy to forget life and how hard it can be while you’re there. Of course, life can be hard at camp. Long hours almost no brakes during the day. You are either going a million miles a minute or sleeping, there is no in between. Your job is to make sure everything you are put on is done with excellence. You want to make sure you remove any distractions you can for the campers. That means making sure the bathroom is very clean when it’s your turn to do public restrooms. Because people don’t always notice when the bathroom is clean, but they sure do notice when it’s dirty. Honestly, I believe any job you are put on should be done to the best of your ability.

It’s a funny thing about the people who work at camp or at least our camp we’re all kind of crazy. You almost have to be to want to work out there. It’s not a glamorous job by any use of the word. We have fun yes. But you don’t always get to have fun. Sometimes you have to get in the dirt and go pull weeds from the front gate flower bed or do trash pick up for the entire camp in 100-degree weather and don’t even get me started on midnight cleaning. Even though we get paid we don’t do it for the money either. If that was the reason we probably wouldn’t stick around. We do it because we have a heart for serving others. There is something beautiful about all of the staff members working towards the same goals. Pursue Christ, Work Hard and Seek Unity. I would have never talked to any of the people I spent all summer getting to know. We all have a special bond that no one else really understands. We’re a team and we work well together it’s awesome how God can bring people together to do his work. We are all completely different if we all went to the same school none of us would have been very close friends but throw us together for three months at a summer camp and it makes us all one big crazy family. It’s actually kind of adorable to think about.

Honestly, the biggest things I learned were our core values: 1. Pursuing Christ, when I got to camp God reminded me I needed to put him first in my life. 2. Working Hard, I learned to work hard and do things with a good attitude and with excellence even when all I wanted to do was go to bed and not talk to anyone. Last but not least 3. Seek Unity, when you work with a team everyone has an important role even when you aren’t in charge most of the time the job wouldn’t get done in time without everyone. We had to actively work together. It was an honor to have the privilege of working at my childhood camp this summer I’m so happy to have the opportunity. With the impact the camp had on my life as a camper, I know there were eternities changed this summer even if the exact numbers are unknown. I’m so just in awe that I get to be even the smallest part of that. So that was my summer now here comes a crazy rest of the year coming full speed ahead!