I am currently sat writing this amongst a pile of clothes that haven’t quite made the cut for camp, whilst my suitcase is edging ever so slowly closer to the luggage weight limit. The last couple of days have been spent ordering my dollars, shopping for last minute things and (as the camp photographer) ordering a new lens! However, it’s the day before I fly and I am finally at the last hurdle of packing (which seems to have taken all week).
I’m starting to feel a huge mix of emotions, mainly excitement and nerves…but mostly excitement! I can’t wait to get going, to get on that flight and to land in New York, ready for the summer of a lifetime (cliché I know, but I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be exactly that). The flight from Heathrow to Newark is about 8hrs, so I’m hoping they have some great movies on-board, but after travelling regularly during my time in Madrid, I quite enjoy flying so I’m looking forward to the journey.
This week the Green Chimneys group chats have been super active, and we’re all buzzing to get to camp, approx. 1000 questions have been asked about literally everything – I’m 99% sure the returners will have just muted the chat and I don’t blame them. On the upside, having an active chat means that we’re already getting to know each other and we’re planning to meet up at the airport, which for me will completely calm my nerves, it’s always better when you know you’re not the only who doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing.
Now, I don’t have much to say seeing as the adventure hasn’t started yet, but, it’s 24 hours away and it’s finally sunk in that I am flying to America tomorrow! for 12 weeks! I’m trying to play it cool but on the inside my mind is blown that I have this opportunity.
All that’s left to do is back-up my Mac, download some Netflix shows and make a killer playlist for summer. Camp America, I am READY!
So, half way through writing my dissertation, I decided it was about time I filled out my Camp America application. Whilst a fantastic way to procrastinate (and claim I’d still had a productive day), this was something I’ve always planned to do. Years ago I got as far as the interview before realising (being less than a year into my photography A-level) that I was most likely vastly inexperienced. So, I put the thought on hold and having come back from Madrid in July, I figured this summer would be the perfect time to go to Camp!
I’ll start of by saying that if anyone has even the smallest inkling of applying for Camp America, in the words of Nike, Just Do It!. Best outcome: you’ll get to spend your summer in America, and worst outcome, well you can learn a surprising amount from rejection.
I submitted my application in December and had an interview just before Christmas, it was nothing too serious, we met in my local Costa and discussed why I wanted to go to Camp and what skills I thought I could bring.
In late January, I went to the London Recruitment Fair which I’d highly recommend. Whilst Camp America hire 80% of applicants online, the recruitment fairs are a fantastic way to meet face-to-face with the camps and to speed up the application process. Being an impatient person, I was more than happy to travel down to London to try and get hired on the spot than to play the waiting game online.
Whilst you can find loads of helpful tips online about the fairs, I will say one thing: be open-minded! I went with a list of my top 5 camps and for various reasons I wasn’t successful with any of them. By the time I got there, 2 had already filled there places for photographers, 1 said they were looking for someone with more childcare experience, another said they were prioritising male applicants (as most of their returners were female) and the last camp said to come back at the end of the day as photography wasn’t one of the key things they were looking for. As you can imagine, I was feeling very defeated by this point and convinced that I’d be leaving without a placement.
Doing one last loop of the venue, I spotted a camp in the corner who were advertising for photography. One of their reps came over to me and started filling me in on the role, he’s going back for his third summer this year and his enthusiasm completely sold it to me. Having never heard of the camp before, he told me that it was a day camp in New York, this was something I’d never considered! In my mind, Summer Camp was all about the overnight experience. But to cut a long story short, yesterday the system updated and I accepted my placement!
Having had the time to research the camp, I am so excited to be heading to NEW YORK for THREE MONTHS! I’m going to be the general camp photographer (aka Paparazzi) and I can’t bloody wait.
Who knew that when I started this blog to document my time in wonderful Madrid, that I’d end up moving to another brilliant city
Hopefully I’ll get the time to update you all throughout summer, and if anyone is reading this in the future and has any questions about Camp America, feel free to get in touch!
