Passion

I frequently hear people talk about how important it is to find your passion.  Do what you love. Life is too short to waste your time doing something you don't care about.  I also frequently talk to people about how lucky I am to have found my passion at such a young age.  As a recent college graduate in this economy, I am so fortunate to be able to go to work every day, and even more, to go to a job and a place I love.  

After I graduated from college in May of 2008, I spent my fifteenth summer at camp.  At the end of the summer, I had all intentions of spending a year doing community service work in New Orleans, but with less than a week til my flight was scheduled to leave, I realized that camp wasn't something I was ready to leave, even if for just a year.  So I did an abrupt about face, and was lucky enough that the camp I had been at for the past ten summers was about to begin interviews for an office position.  A few weeks later, I found myself settling into my first "real" job instead of into the inner city as planned.  

While at the moment, a lot of what I do doesn't sound very exciting:  filing papers and processing registrations and answering phone calls, I enjoy what I do immensely.  Ever since I was six years old, and I went to camp for the first time, I have been in love with the idea of camp.  As a child, I went to several different camps, and had both good experiences and bad;  but the good always heavily outweighed the bad, and I always started counting down to the next summer the minute I was home.  When I was 12, I went to Camp K for the first time, and I never wanted to leave.  Within a year or two, my mind was set on working at CK--not just as a summer job, but in some capacity, full time.  A few years later, I am amazed that I have the opportunity to follow my childhood dream and that the world of camp is still as enticing as it was to me as a 6 year old going on my first real independent adventure, a 12 year old who fell in love with CK, and a 16 year old who couldn't believe she was finally the counselor. 

I think my favorite part of my job is when I get to talk to a parent who is genuinely interested in what camp can do for their child.  I love getting to share my experiences and my passion for camp with others, and I love getting to tell parents what I have seen camp do in the lives of children.  In my ten years at CK, and my years before that as a camper other places, I have been changed by camp and I have seen camp change others.  Camp is an experience like no other, and I am so excited about venturing into the world of camping full time.  As summer approaches, I'm both nervous and excited to see what camp looks like from a different perspective, but I know one thing will never change whether I'm 6 or 60, and still lucky enough to be involved in camping:  I'm always counting down the days til camp begins.