In less than a week, I will hug my parents, brother, and dogs goodbye, get in my car, and drive about 7 hours to Elbert, Colorado, where I will be living for over two months. No, I'm not headed there to take summer classes or to visit family; I'm going to be working at camp.
To some, the thought of spending nine or ten weeks surrounded by young children virtually 24/7 sounds like hell, but personally, I am very excited. I believe everyone has at least one thing they are great at, something that is their true passion in life, and over the past several years, I have realized that mine is working with children. (This is why I recently changed my major to elementary education, something I had been considering for quite awhile.) You see, the task of coaxing twenty 7-year-olds into making a circle doesn't phase me, and I can be asked the same question by the same child ten times in a ten minute period without losing my temper. As my friend said when we were discussing my move to the elementary education major, "Sarah, you are good with kids. Not many people are good with kids, so people who are good with kids should work with kids."
So, while many of my peers will spend their summer answering phones, making copies, and going on daily coffee runs for the office, I'll be running around all day with my cabin of 8-10 girls. Over the course of each day, I'll serve as a surrogate mother, nurse (There are real nurses on site, too!), entertainment director, referee, cheerleader, mentor, team captain, therapist, and tour guide. I'll make sure each camper brushes her teeth and puts on sunscreen in the morning, and I'll be there to mediate when they have an argument with another camper. I'll be the one to clean and put a Band-Aid on a minor cut, and I'll be sitting with them in the nurse's office if they get an injury I am not trained to handle by myself. I'll rock climb and horseback ride right along with them and will teach them lots of new goofy games. I'll wear many hats and will undoubtably be exhausted at the end of each day, but I can't think of a better way to spend a summer than at camp, working with other Jewish young adults and playing with kids all day.
