Personal Narrative: My Summer Career

Senior Essay

My hunt to find a summer job was a no brainer; choose the easiest/most enjoyable option- a camp counselor. As I began my first day of work I knew I was up for a rude awakening. My original perception that camp would be such an easy job was not necessarily correct; I quickly realized this job would not be so "easy". My first day I was assigned 6th grade girls, which my co-counselors laughed at when I announced". Dirty, grimy, and and unbearable humidity. The Scorching sun and the lingering scents of bug spray and sunscreen, a perfect description of my first day. As I began my first day I greeted what I could already tell would be one sassy group of kids. As we began our preliminary introductions they all decided to use

nicknames, my favorite nickname being cheeze-it.

As they reached my name I shared Michael and immediately cheeze-it shouted “no!” “we're gonna name you Felicia”, not knowing it would end up lasting for the whole summer. Not to mention that I am a White Male? After the first week I realized this was hard work, and I had to start preparing, because I was essentially a warrior coming into combat every morning, and this would last for seven more weeks.

I learned whether I had a bad or good day the day before I would have to start each day with a positive attitude and a smile on my face. As I got a 2nd grade group they were named the Moon Goons, fulfilling to them because they were definitely goons. They were difficult but I learned from them to stay patient and to always put sunscreen on… endless you want a boy with a red face and one very angry parent. This group was very different from the other groups I was used to, impatient and ALWAYS screaming, but I learned to love it. After that group I had the best group imaginable, third grade girls and we were named the Super Sassy Sassafras’s and yours truly was

Mrs. Sassy Pants, and yes , Mrs. Sassy pants, not Mr…. This week was by the best. Later in the week I was informed that I would have to change tribes because a few people were sick, this was a real disappointment. To this day I can bet you that those girls still don’t forgive me for “betraying them” as they put it. I was moved to a group of 8th grade boys which was ironic because I was shorter than almost every single one of them. During the overnight I learned more than I could imagine about all my campers but one in particular. A camper named Luke, he would later tell me how his dad doesn’t care about him and how at camp he feels at home and he has so much fun, at the end of the week he told me thank you so much for this week and told me how much fun he had which was so surprising considering he wasn’t the nicest camper. As i would never imagine the impact i could have had on him. Later in the week I had a boy named Patrick bring be a box of tissues in because I was sick they days before, crazy how one simple thing like that can make your day. After that session I reached my last week of camp, the one and only 1st graders. These first graders were the cutest bunch of kids ive ever seen. I also learned that with little kids you have to expect that putting socks and shoes on will take an expected time of 25 minutes. There’s was one camper who I tried to make him make me his favorite forever so I asked him “How do I become you’re number one” and Brant responded “Kill MR MR(My co-counselor) and I will never forget that. One of the last days of camp we went for a creek hike and I don’t think more rules have ever been broken. Somehow we all ended up jumping in the creek yelling and screaming and didn’t even care about are wet clothes. It was pure chaos, which I had learned to absolutely love, because chaos within 1st graders is not chaos it's just adorable. As we reached the last day I was announced the Rookie of the Year, Given to the best new counselor which I really honored. What I thought would be an easy/fun summer was a very demanding and hard job, but it was the most unforgettable summer I ever had. Not only did I have an amazing summer, I learned more that summer about myself, and I learned more from those children that I could ever learn from an adult, and that is priceless.I learned that i could impact so many lives at once which was priceless.