For three summers I volunteered as a Junior Counselor (JC) at Trinity Woods Summer Day Camp, where I also went during the summer as a child, but this past summer since I was now 18 I was able to be a Counselor. What’s so much better about being a Counselor instead of a JC? $$$ :) but this summer turned out being so much more than just a nice paycheck. As a JC you get moved to whatever group needs you and your job is to pretty much run kids to the bathroom, set up games, or fix their scraped knees; you’re there for whatever your counselors need you for. At the beginning of the summer I was thinking I would pretty much be doing the exact same thing I did when I was a JC, except have a few more responsibilities and I would have to make the schedules every week, simple enough right? I was put in charge of about 8-15 8 year old boys every week, they were the biggest headache in the beginning and I couldn’t wait for the summer to be over. But as the summer went on and I had the same group of boys week after week I learned so much about them and they learned a lot about me. I knew when they were having a bad day, what games they enjoyed playing, what their family life was like, what upset them, what made them happy and what to do to make them stop crying when they got hurt. They pretty much became my own children, and just like children with their parents, they knew what to do to aggravate me and how to make me happy after they did something wrong. It’s so great knowing that all these little kids look up to you as they do their own parents and still adore you even when you scold them or sit them in time out and that they trust you enough to come and talk to you whenever they are having problems at home with their family. By the end of the summer I realized I had done a lot more than just been a type of babysitter for these boys, I affected their lives and they affected mine too

My boys!
Another great thing about my summer job was my camp family (my co-workers). They’re the greatest bunch of people to be with. We are all so different but we still mesh together really well. We spend so much time working together at camp that we really are like a family! During the really competitive themed weeks such as “Color Wars” or “Olympics” we’ll sometimes fight and argue just like our campers but in the end we’re always there for each other, and in a sometimes stressful job like being responsible for a bunch of crazy little kids, that’s exactly what you need. So if you’re looking for a fun job next summer or a place to send your kids, Trinity Woods is the place to go :)
http://trinitywoods.org/
http://trinitywoods.org/
| Camp Counselors during Color Wars! |