After nearly nine weeks, 3 sessions and around 300 campers, camp is now over for the summer. It has been both challenging and tiring, but I have done it.
Camp, like life, throws up challenges. Some you can control; others you can't. One of the biggest challenges has been the behaviour of the campers. Most of these kids are very badly behaved, and not easy to work with. Back in 2014, this was a very steep learning curve for me. Two years later, I feel I have been better at this. Yes, I am hardly an expert and plenty of counsellors do it better than me, but I have improved. Whist I have been able to pass on my techniques for managing behaviour, it has also been great to learn from others. We all have different methods for managing - and I have taken numerous ideas from both returners and newbies. Whilst I probably won't be working with children going forward, these techniques are still useful none the less.
Perhaps my biggest achievement on camp has been with my swim teaching. If you haven't guessed, I f'ing LOVE swimming, and it was my goal on camp to make the campers feel the same. Over the course of the summer, I have got hydrophobes to swim for the first time, moved weak swimmers up to 'blue band' where they can swim in deep water and even taught a few counsellors to swim too. I have loved teaching my lessons, and I really hope the kids enjoyed them too. At the end of each day, I ask myself the question: "What have I done today to make me feel proud?" - and almost every day I have managed to find something.
Almost all campers at my camp are, or were, living homeless in New York City. Whenever I am working with the children, regardless of their behaviour, I need to bear that in mind. These children cannot help their background, and deserve a great summer. I use the phrase "you are here for the kids" a lot - which has always been my motivation. There are an estimated 23,000 children living homeless in New York, more than the population of Northallerton. It is a truly staggering number - but I am glad to have done my part to help a small proportion of them. But, these kids are not statistics, they are human, and a camp, we allow them to be just that.
I always think back to why I wanted to work at a camp. Unlike these kids, I was very fortunate to be involved in a range of activities - from swim club, to the UK Youth Parliament, to the Scouts. Whilst I wouldn't describe my upbringing as privileged, I was certainly more fortunate than most. Those things were what I loved when I was young (and indeed I still do enjoy them). I wanted to work at camp to give children the same great experiences that I had - and at both years at camp, I hope I achieved that.
UKYP, Swim Club and the Scouts all had one thing in common - positive role models. The people who lead these, usually volunteers, were always passionate, enthusiastic and wanted to make a difference to the lives of young people. They certainly made a big difference to my life - and I hope that I have now done the same to my campers. Without these, I would have never been able to camp all over the UK and enjoy a once in a lifetime trip to Australia; would have never gained my love of swimming; and would have never been able to lead social action campaigns and even speak in the House of Commons. These positive role models made me who I am - and for which I am incredibly grateful. When campers tell me things like "I want to be a lifeguard someday" I know that for those two weeks I spent with them, I was their role model.
There are two other important role models in my life too. Camp is basically one big family. We may not always get on, but we are there for each other. For the two weeks each camper spends at camp, you are basically their parents. You keep them safe, look after them and point them in the right direction. More importantly, you make sure they are happy. These kids may not always have a supportive home background for various reasons - but I do, and I will never ever take that for granted.
Camp in general has provided me with a great opportunity to reflect. I am at a time of my life where I am between completing a work placement in a bank and starting back at university. I have one year left to go at Brunel, before I am released into the real world. Camp has taught me a lot about who I am, what I enjoy and what matters in life. The timing of camp was near perfect, and has provided a great break - if you can call it that. I will soon be applying for jobs for when I will graduate. The one thing I will most take for camp this year - is do what makes you happy - which is exactly why everyone should work at camp at least once in their life.
Now that camp is over, the fun doesn't stop. Over the next three weeks, I will be travelling the West Coast of America. I will be starting in San Francisco and finishing San Diego - visiting a big range of places from Yosemite and Joshua Tree National Parks in California; the Grand Canyon; and Los Angeles. Yeah, camp was great, but how exciting does that sound!? This has been planned right from the start of 2016, and needless to say, I am incredibly excited. Oh, and I'll be blogging about it all too...
The 2016 Waterfront, and reason my summer was so incredible
