By the end of camp I became really attached to the campers and was sad to see them leave. I learned a lot during this Summer, and these young children taught me a lot about myself as well. They made me laugh, they gave me memorable stories to share with my roommates, and at times I went home concerned about their circumstances at at home. This camp has helped me realize that working with children from "at-risk" backgrounds is what I really want to do in life.
They tested my patience, they tested my authority, they even tested my athletic ability when they challenged me to a race!...But most of all they tested my willingness to be there for them when they needed an adult to talk to and open up about their feelings. This camp meant a lot to me because my childhood was very similar to what many of these campers are going through. As we learned in training, sometimes our negative experiences in life can become a vicious cycle as we reenact them in our lives as grown ups, not intentionally, but because its the only way we learned to do things... I always told myself I would never continue that cycle because I wanted things to be different. This camp helped me realize how much of an impact one can be for these young children. As oppositional as these campers were at times, they still look up to us even though they might openly deny it. It made me strive to be there for them even more because, as i've said before... it only takes one person to make that difference...and we happened to have nine...so the impact could be even greater!
This camp gave me a lot of useful skills that I can benefit from even out of camp. I've worked with children for several years now...but for the most part it was one-on-one work...Working with our 26 campers taught me crucial skills on managing a large group of children, dealing with conflict/resolution issues, learning how to spread out my attention so that no child feels ignored, being able to cater the lesson plan to suit every individual child's special needs, and the fact that working with children isn't a 9-5 job. You grow to care about this kids in a very special way...so much that I would go home sometimes and be wondering what the kids were doing at the moment, planning what I would want to do with them the next day, wondering how I could get Tessa to participate in the activities since she refused to do so the day before, and at times being at the store and seeing an item that reminded me of my kids and bring a smile to face.
I plan on keeping in touch with my girls [atleast before i leave the country! lol]. I want to continue watering the friendship that we started over camp and hopefully see them blossom into the young beautiful ladies that I know they will become. Thank you Cathy and Lisa for this opportunity to work with this young and talent children. They brought so much into my life and I will forever keep the memories I shared with them over the last six weeks.
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