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I work at a summer camp in the North Georgia mountains, Athens YWCO Camp for Girls. I have both good and bad stories.
Camp is set up where you have a co-counselor in a cabin with between 10-14 girls of a specific age. Then you are also either in charge of some classes or you assist in classes. I usually work with girls 12-14. So the emotional ones. I also teach the photography and pottery classes.
One year, I had a cabin full of city girls who thought camp was horrible. One child thought she was a werewolf. Another thought she was a thug and tried the threaten everyone else. In addition my co-counselor thought the rules of camp didn't apply to her and contradicted everything I said.
But it's not all bad. There are the nights when you throw "dance parties" in the cabin and they all bounce around to NSYNC. Or when you have Counselor Imitation Night and every other girl is dressed up like you.
One of my favorite stories is from last year. We had a girl come from a bad situation and we could tell that she really didn't want to be at camp. But it was either camp or Juvie. For the first few days she was angry and would not paricipate or talk to anyone. During her two week stay, we got to watch her come out and begin to enjoy camp. After she went home we got a letter from her social work saying that the only thing she talked about was camp and she wanted to come back next year if she could. Stories like hers are the reason I keep going to camp even if it only happens once a year or once every two years.
I've got more, but it seems silly to outline my three years of camp life. I also have pictures if you ever want to see them. Mac's advice is wonderful take that to heart if you get a job. Take everything with a little bit of humor or you will go crazy and keep them away from the nurse unless they are really dying. The nurses at Y-Camp always coddle the girls and let them stay in the A/C at their station. Once they've been to the nurse we nevver get them back.
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