The End of Summer

Hello to all of my fellow camp counselors!

Summer of 2012 has officially come to a close for me. It was a wonderful, challenging, life changing experience, as always. I met new friends, developed skills and hopefully made a positive impact of campers.

One of the hardest moments in summer is the end. You have to say goodbye to a group of people you have been living and working with for months, re-adjust to normal life, and actually get dressed. You have to stop saying corny camp sayings, store your camp songs in the back of your mind for a while, and attempt to get rid of tan lines. If you are a life long camper, like myself, you have to go back to pretending you are actually a normal human being.

I will be talking through some of these challenges in this blog, and giving my advise/experiences with them. As always, please feel free to comment and share your personal experience.

Leaving Your Family
Camp staff becomes a family like no other. And suddenly, you are all torn apart, never to be together as a whole again. It doesn't matter if you loved every single member (unlikely) or barely got along with any of them. You will end up missing them. And chances are, you met some best friends in your group, and being away from them will make you feel un-whole. At our goodbye staff party, one of our directors talked about having to leave our new family. They explained that even though every day apart is another day from the last time we were together, it's also one day closer to the next time we will see each other. Having a positive outlook can really take the last day from being sorrowful to joyful, because you know you will see each other again.

Re-adjusting To Real Life
I've been told it is NOT normal to walk around singing hippo songs. It can actually be hard to turn of the counselor part of your brain, and get back into the normal world. Hopefully, however, you learned some things you can carry over into everyday life. While singing camp songs may not be acceptable, having enthusiasm on a day-to-day basis is. If you can convert your camp skills into more practical daily skills, it makes the re-adjusting process a lot easier.

Telling Stories That No One Else Gets
Yeah, okay we get it, you don't think that story was funny. But seriously, if you were there... How many times does that happen after camp ends? It can be so hard, because you truly want to share the experience with your other friends, but the stories end up being "you had to be there" types. Try to keep the stories to a minimum with your non-camp friends. Even if it does mean that you have to tell them to your dog.

Getting Camp Sick
This was a HUGE problem when I was a camper. And while camp is now work as well as fun, I do still miss it immensely when I'm gone. Luckily, the modern world has made it so easy for us to combat this. Skype is my favorite thing in the world, since I have friends all over the world and I can talk to them FOR FREE. Awesome. Also, snail mail is way fun. I love pen pals.

I hope you are all doing well getting back to school/normal jobs/being bored. I for one am now back at school, and keep getting "The Princess Pat" stuck in my head. Oh well, Winter Camp is only a few months away.

You are amazing!
Samantha