New Step for a Brighter Tomorrow
It's when the things we love most change that we feel the most devastated. At the end of last summer, I felt this devastation first hand at the place I loved most: camp. Most of the people who were at camp year round since the time I began my time at camp, were all leaving or changing roles. This rocked my world and many others, and all I felt like I could do was cry over this loss that had just occurred.
Once university started up, I decided that since I couldn't change what had happened at camp I could try and help camp through my work at college while nicely also adding to my own camp education. I took business classes in hopes that I could understand what was happening with my own camp. I used its scenario for projects that would give way to how to improve its marketing strategy and took financial accounting to understand how to read the financial statements and know what was going on there. Through the learning and understanding of what was going down, I found healing in the process.
It dawned on me that I couldn't let a change of directorship change my feelings about the place I cherished most. Although, what I loved most about was the community summer after summer lead by these people who are now gone. I am unsure of what this coming summer will bring, but I know if I am a part of it, I'll make it the best it can possibly be. And then some.
I have the love and the drive to makes things work. Camp still is this beautiful place I fell in love with 10 summers ago. It is still where I met my sisters, and my closest friends. So if you are reading this and are finding yourself in a situation similar to mine where you aren't quite sure if you want to go back to camp, remember this. Camp is what you make it. It isn't the people or the land or the structure itself. It is the games you choose, the programming choices you can make, the interacting with the kids that you have an impact on. Remember why you're there. Camp is for you and camp is for the campers.
