I have consistently been bad at taking my full two hour breaks this summer. During the past two summers, I've never had this problem. This summer has been different. I've found that I am much more of an ambiovert. This means that I enjoy my time alone, but also draw energy from others at times.
Being in the trading post (camp store) this summer, I've found myself enjoying spending so much time around campers. There have been the campers that I've wanted to get out and see me kids more. It's then that the kids coming through the trading post make me smile. Sometimes kids get excited about the simplest thing, like the fact that we have root beer.
What I didn't expect this summer was what would happen the night before and day that my second group of campers would leave. My second group of campers was a group I connect well with. On their second Wednesday at camp, the counselors, AD, and I took our kids behind the craft house to wash their feet. I don't know if the kids got anything out of us washing their feet. For me, being able to wash their feet was something that I loved doing. It allowed me to do one last thing for them. The following night, we did this thing called breaking bread with the kids. One person starts in the middle of the circle of kids and staff for the area with a loaf of bread. They call up someone that they want to say something nice about. Both people then take a small piece of the bread, and eat it. The person that was called up then takes the bread and calls someone else up. Nobody can get called up a second time during the first round. After that, we go into a free for all where everyone mingles and talks with each other about the things that they saw in each other.
It was as we did breaking bread that I was called up by my AD (Area Director), right away. It was the first time that I had ever been the first person called up. As we were preparing to leave after breaking bread to go to bed, I was standing in the middle of the room with tears streaming down my face, and laughing. The kids had "broken" me. I had fallen in love with them, and was having a hard time saying goodbye to them. It was then that my AD asked me if I was laughing or crying. I was crying because I knew I didn't have any more time with them that I could use to love them. I didn't think that I'd find a group that I would love so much, or connect with in the way that I did.
I didn't realize just how much I was going to miss the kids until Friday morning when I didn't have any time with them after they left the cabin. I didn't realize just how much I love those kids until that Friday morning. As I walked from the cabin to the staff lounge to check for mail, I cried. Several people stopped to make sure that I was okay. It was good to know that people cared enough to stop to make sure I was fine. It was as I left the staff lounge that a member of the staff that I don't know very well stopped me to see how I was doing. It was then that she said that it was clear that this was a great job for me simply because I had thrown myself into knowing the kids and loving them in a say that I now missed them.
The area director I was with for those two weeks was, and is amazing. She consistently was there if I needed to talk. She consistently encouraged me to take my breaks. In all honesty, God has spoken through her to me in so many ways.
As we now head into our final week of "normal" summer camp, I find myself wondering what this week is going to bring me. I've had three groups of two week campers, and will now have one one-week group of campers. I can't say what this fall holds for me. But I can say that whatever this fall holds is going to bring new lessons and experiences that I can't wait for!
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