Journals

I will share some of the journals that I have written while at Double H. They are the posts previous to this one. 

CAMPERS ARE HERE!!!!!

Sorry I haven’t wrote in this for a little while. Just needed some time to think and get my life together…and mostly just sleep!!!!

So session 1 has begun!! We have 13 girls in the Bobcat cabin, and they are all great!! We had a slow start today, but that was just the counselor just waiting around for the girls to get here!

They seemed to love the carnival or kick ball. They all came away with having something, or a good team feeling. But Program Showcase was the bomb.com! A-Team brought the house down!!!! First rotation of programming was really good. I talked to a bunch of people and they all seemed to say it went really well. A-Team had a great first rotation! The Bobcats went to Creative Arts and they did a fashion show, and it went well from what I heard!

The campfire was great! I got to snuggle up with Isabelle, and talk to a few other B-O girls! And then it was bedtime! Day 1 always goes by like a blur! After the girls went to bed, I had to lead the staff meeting, as that Liz had to deal with U.L. duties, of calling some parents about questions. I think I did a good job leading the meeting. It made me realize that I really want to be either a U.L. or A-Team Director…so who knows!!!!!!!!

Tonight will be short and brief, as that I’m tired! So what shall the week bring us now? More B-O ?!?!?!

Scared

So today was a very very very long day. It was non-stop going going going. Getting us ready for camp I guess. But even then we have some break!

During the morning we had our medical break out groups. During Emos session, she told a story of a video from her lifeguarding days. It was a video of a group of people in a pool surrounded by lifeguards all on high chairs. It was the end of a rotation of some short, and all patrons were asked to get out. As they were leaving, the guards saw a dead child on the bottom of the pool. Being a lifeguard, this scares the living day lights out of me! Being around water is the scariest part of my job here at HH.

Emo said a great line during this session, “I am always a little scared going to work every day. The day I am not scared is the day that I quit, because that will be the day that I make a life – threatening mistake.” Being here at HH, I think that we all should be a little scared of our jobs every day. Doesn’t have to be a lot, but just enough to keep us on our toes. It keeps us alert and tentative to our children here!

Another thing that we did today that really stuck with me is the emergency calls. My group had the one that if a few counselors were in a car accident the night before session started and alcohol was involved.  My group had talked and talked and talked about what to do. We had to act is out, which went fine. But at the end of the exercise, I wandered. What would I do if this really happened? I don’t know if I would be able to work as well with my children. I love every person here at HH. I don’t care if I may not like them. But I still love them and would do anything for any of them! That is what this HH family is about!

We also had our “Cabin Night” with the Chipmunk cabin. It went really well. As I was just typing this, an ant just crawled on my bed…ughh! Thank you Bed Bug Guy!! We, Bobcats, did a Toy Story theme scavenger hunt where they had to find Woody and Buzz and save them from Emperor Zurge. And they did a Dinner/Fancy/Auction/Something Event. It was a lot of fun!

I finally got off campus tonight and went to Lake George with a bunch of people. It was so nice and I forgot how nice it is when you have been on campus for a long time. We had a really good time just hanging out and talking about all different kinds of stuff. We also got to have some fun down at the beach area! ;-P

Today was just a stressful, tiring day I guess. And I took out from it that; I need to get ready for these days ahead. They will be long, and I will get tired! So get ready Summer ’10…here I come!

Learning

I am trying to do this every-day so that I have lots of memories and ways to see myself improve. So today I think I will talk about Learning.

Every day in my life, I try to learn something new. Weather its small, or big. Being here at HH for 7 years now, I still learn something new every summer about myself. This is my second year through full staff training. Yes, it is pretty much the same as last year; boring, fun, long, tiring. And it is pretty much the same information. But I still try and pull something new out that I didn’t know.

During lunch today, we had a huge dance party in the middle of the dining hall. It was FANTASTIC!!! We were all just jumping and dancing away like nobody cares! It just shows that here we can be who we are, and just be silly. I finally remember the quote that Liz Casline had said yesterday, “I can jump on the table here, and yell and scream. And I know that I will have support from everyone around me.” And its all true. No matter where you are at camp, or what you are doing. You always will have the support of each and every one of the staff. It doesn’t even matter if you are on campgrounds. You have their support.

We also got to do the Ropes Course tonight. It gave the Ropes staff some practice before the campers got here. But I think it also showed us, the staff, just what our campers are capable of. Megan McN. and I did the Dangling Duo. It’s where you have two people and they work together to get to the next level of the giant ladder. It is very hard, and very demanding. Our children here at camp, do that. They jump off the Flying Trapeze, and they do the Elvis Pelvis. They do all of this! How can people in the real world tell them they cant, when we see them do it in front of us? I just don’t know.

So I figured out what I learned today while writing this entry. I have learned that I need to do what our campers do more often, to put in perspective of how demanding their lives must be. 

Why?

So I have decided to start a journal for this summer. I have never really been able to keep a journal, just because I don’t like to write. But I figure, “Hey why not this summer?! I have a laptop I, I can do it on my bed in my room.” So here it goes!

So this summer started with Program Training, and I was a little nervous when I saw that there were sooo many new Program Staff. I was like wow!! But training for that went really, and we bonded like a great team!

Then came Inspiration. I had the siblings (1, 2, 3). They were great! They were a lot of work, with keeping them together and entertained, but it was a great week. 1 made about 10 or so jewelry things up in A&C, and 3 did a bunch of paintings that were very modern! 2 did everything and anything all week long. 4, from the Wolf Pack ended up having to come to this week, instead of regular camp. Which was really hard on us staff that had him last year in the Wolf Pack. But he is feeling better (even though he is physical off worse) which is what really matters. He became the Mayor of Camp, and he really lived up to the name!

On June 15^th, we welcomed in about 70 new staff to the HH family! 65% of the over all staff are returning staff!  It’s so great to see everyone from last year, and to see the new faces! I feel just after 2 days of training that we as a staff are going to be a great team!

“Dream Big” is the slogan for 2010. They have asked us, what are your Dreams? What are they for the summer? I really don’t know what dreams I have for the summer…I know it sounds weird. But I know that just because I am here, it is a Dream Come True!  Being here at HH is the best dream that anyone could ever have. It is a “wonderful place, with wonderful people” – 5 (Chipmunk ’09). I hope that maybe I can find another Dream this summer while being here. But we will have to compare this one and the last one I write.

The one big thing they asked us today (Day 2 of Training) was “Why? Why do we give up our summer to come up here, to HH?” At first, my answer was, why not?! Why would we not come here? I couldn’t imagine not being here for a summer. But as the day went on, and I heard what other people’s reasons were. I thought of it a little harder. My reason is because this place is home, its natural, its how life should be in the real world. HH is such a different place from the real world. People don’t understand why guys dress up in dresses and tight fitting costumes. Or why counselors will do anything and everything to make a camper have a fantastic time. We counselors always say, “You don’t know what we are talking about, until you experience it yourself.” And its true! The magic of HH can’t be told and understood from an outsider. You must become an insider.

Weirdo tonight at the Waterfront campfire shared why he keeps coming back to HH, and wrote a poem about it. It was amazing! It brought everything that any camper-counselor ever could think of. Him and I are one in a kind. We think very much a-like and it is sometimes kind of weird. But, he put it in exact words for what a lot of people feel. It runs in our blood and in our veins. It’s a big part of my heart and it will always be a part of my life.

Every time I look around the grounds here, I just smile. I think of the memories that I have as a camper, and the ones with my campers. I think of the memories that will be made the summer coming up, and the memories that will be made long after I am gone. But I will keep two things in mind all summer. 1. Dreams are made and 2. Why?

Health and Happiness 2010