One summer day about 19 years ago a little girl was introduced to camp for the first time. She had been waiting a whole summer and a winter for her parents to let her go.
She was in cabin 15b, her counselors name was Cynthia and there was a co-counselor and a pet raccoon named Oreo. For this little girl it was the best week of her life. The stories lasted all winter long and were then replaced by her second summer at camp. After that first summer she knew that the greatest thing in the world to do was to be a counselor. Counselors were the luckiest people on earth. The little girl continued to go to camp for several years, one year when her mom was going through check in with her, she remembers over hearing her mom talk to a former student of hers. She was asking her how she was and then asked her a question about the pay scale for staff. It was one of those moments when time stops, the camera zooms in on the main character and their eyes grow wide, they got paid?! How could this not be the best job in the world? It was at that moment that the little girl KNEW that she was going to be a staff member because it WAS the best job in all the world. People got paid to hang out at camp ALL SUMMER LONG.
For seven years that little girl went to camp. She made friends, learned how to make leather crafts, candles, sing camp songs, and so much more. She felt loved and accepted by the staff, and wanted to follow in their steps. While in high school she applied to work at camp but wasn't accepted. So she did other things during those years never forgetting her dream.
The year she graduated from high school she was accepted to work at a camp on the east coast, a camp in Florida. The morning after graduation she loaded in a van and drove with other people from her town to camp for her first summer of camp. It was a hard summer but the first of many fun summers to come. Three summers went by while she worked at the camp in Florida. She made friends that lasted through university, she learned how to accept herself, how to make friends, and how to work at camp.
For 10 years she has been living the dream every summer. From counseling to running a day camp she has worked at camp. In her second or third year of working she met a staff member who had been at camp for 10 years and she thought a) he's lucky and b) he's old. This summer that little girl who at the age of seven fell in love with working at camp is LIVING THE DREAM. She has finished her 10th year at camp and is staying on to work at camp year round.
For 19 years it has been a dream, a love, an unimaginable goal but God in His infinite love and mercy has given the little girl a chance to live out her passions.
If someone would have taken that little girl aside and told her that her life could hold this much excitement and joy she still couldn't have believed this much could happen.
That little girl is one lucky kid.
Comments