Moving On

Heading back to the real world after camp isn't always easy.  You've just spent two plus months working hard at our job where you gave a bunch of children an amazing week at camp, and now you're back in the real world.  You might be heading back to school.  You might be looking for a new job.  You might be going back to a school year type position, like teaching or an after school program job.  It is then that you realize just how hard you worked, but how much you loved your job at camp.

As someone who has worked at summer camps for four summers straight, I know what this is like.  After my second summer of working at camp, I can remember asking myself two questions that I think many people who work summers at a camp have asked themselves at some point.

How do you pick up the threads of an old life?  How do you go on?

How does a person pick up like in the real world after having spent a summer working at camp?  How does one process what they experienced at camp, and find themselves okay with not being at camp and with their camp family?

What I've realized since asking myself those questions is that change is what challenges us and helps us become better people.  Looking back at some of the things I wrote shortly after getting home from camp in 2013, I found something that I wrote that sticks out to me now, as I start a new job, post camp.

I wrote:

"We don't know how strong we are until being strong is the only choice we have."

This sticks out to me as I look back on this summer spent working at SpringHill.  I hadn't realized just how much strength the people I worked with at SpringHill, or I for that matter, had until I thought about it on my way home.  We dealt with homesick, and emotionally draining campers.  We made thousands of meals.  We ran so many activities.  We built countless campfires, sang so many camp songs.  We loved each other and our campers, even when it was hard.  We gave of ourselves to give the campers a week or two that they would never forget.  Sometimes we dealt with injuries.  We made a difference in childrens lives.  We all experienced ups and downs.  That's what made the staff a family who loved and supported each other, even when we got on each others nerves.

If you're one of those people who have finished a summer working at a camp, don't forget what you learned or experienced this summer.  Always keep those things with you.  You never know when you'll be interviewed for a job after college by someone that worked at the same camp as you did, but was there a couple years before you were.  You never know when you'll run into a camper that will recognize you and be so excited to see a face that they remember from camp.

I hope that people employers recognize that working at camp for a summer IS a real job.  We mange behavior, feed kids, make kids smile, help kids see their own potential.  I hope they see that people who have worked at camp see people with a considerable number of skills, and the ability to pick new skills up in a moment.  People who have worked at camps will look back at their time working at camp as a time when they grew, learned, and had a blast growing and learning.  I hope that employees seriously consider former camp staff as new employees.

I hope that all you camp people are adjusting to life away from camp, yet are staying in contact with their camp friends.