It's Been an Interesting Ride...

It's the night before the last day of camp. I've worked at this camp all summer, my group specifically being with first graders. I wouldn't say it's the best or worst thing I've ever done, but it's definitely been interesting. Not to mention, I've learned a hell of a lot.

Since day 1 of camp, I've had one of the hardest groups in the entire camp. My co-counselors and I constantly had our hands full, and there wasn't one moment that we could let our guard down. Having never worked with kids before, this was a bit overwhelming for me, especially for the first couple weeks of summer. I had quickly started thinking that maybe I had made a mistake, that I wasn't cut out to work with kids after all. However, I gradually got used to it, figured out what to do, and realized that maybe I do really enjoy working with kids. The frustrations are more than many other jobs, but you know what? So are the rewards.

When I first interviewed for this job, one of the questions I was asked was "What is the most rewarding experience you've had working with children?" I didn't really have much to say since the only real work I had done with kids was a regular family that I babysat for. Now, after the summer that I've had, I could list so many more. One story in particular is one that I'd like to share. For the first several weeks of camp, I had some REALLY tough kids in my group. One of them was so tough that we never really knew what to do with him and didn't know how we were going to handle him for the time that he was there. Then, we started talking to our directors and getting some extra help, and his parents were helpful, too. We were able to use some methods to help calm him down and keep his behavior in check, and suddenly he got to be much easier to work with. He always had his moments, but the more summer went on, the more fun it was to be with him, and the happier it made us to see him smile. Suddenly we all began to realize -- while he is a tough kid to work with, he really is sweet, and truly does mean well. I got to see him and his parents tonight at our family night and can't tell you how happy I was to see him again. After talking to his parents a bit, they expressed to me how much they want people to see his good side. I'm so glad I was able to honestly say that I got to see it and enjoy it. His growth over the few weeks I had him was one of the biggest rewards I could ask for.

It's been a tough summer. Long, tiring, and a hell of a lot more work than I'd ever done at a job before. While I'm not sure whether or not I'll return to this particular camp, I am actually still considering working with kids some day. Despite the challenges, working with kids truly is a great experience. I'm not making any final decisions, but taking some sort of career path with children is certainly not ruled out.

Reminiscent

In an attempt to get me to "come back" and spend more money, Shutterfly sent me an email offering me 101 free prints. While I most likely will not be giving them more money due to a starving bank account, I am going to take advantage of their free offer. I see this as the perfect opportunity to get started on printing my pictures from study abroad. However, there's just one problem - while I have in fact cut down a lot of my pictures, I still have several hundred that I have to pick through to decide which ones are the best ones to print...not exactly an easy task. Due to the ever looming deadline of my free prints offer, I decided to take tonight to continue on my picture-sorting endeavor. What did this lead to? Really missing Spain...

The first folder I started to sort through was my "Best of Valencia" folder; all of the everyday stuff that just happened in Valencia, separated from special events and trips. I barely started scrolling through when I just wanted to go back. To be honest, while it was a bit of a sad feeling, that sadness actually made me feel quite happy...I suddenly remembered what I great semester I did have while I was in Europe. Every picture made me think of a random funny story or wonderful moment. As I flipped through I remembered how many of those wonderful moments I really did have, and how lucky I was to have them.

Now you might be wondering, why would I even question my happiness studying abroad? I got to go to Spain! Who wouldn't be happy?? While I always saw it as an amazing experience, I had started to wonder lately if I had really made the most of it. There were trips I wanted to take that I never went on, things I wanted to do that I never did...not to mention talking to friends of mine that did so much more than I did during their study abroad experience. After talking to them, I started to wonder if I had left too much of that opportunity to go to Europe slip away. But even looking at those few pictures, I remembered that I didn't let anything slip away. While I didn't get to do EVERYTHING I wanted to, I sure did a hell of a lot. I had good moments, bad moments, and everything in between...and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

By the end of my study abroad experience, my home-body self was ready to come back to good ol' Derwood. Now, as I look through these photos, I just want to go back. Going to Spain helped to open my eyes to so many things -- a whole wide world, my independence, and plenty of new life lessons. I had an amazing experience that made a huge difference in my life, and I'm so incredibly glad I did it. Now I just have to start saving my money so I can get back to exploring the rest of the world as soon as possible :)