Things You Learn As a Summer Camp Counselor

Things You Learn As a Summer Camp Counselor Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/sailing-lake-summer-camp-kids-2655756/ Humility: Working at the Bottom of the Food Chain One major lesson that you will learn from being a camp counselor is humility and understanding what it’s like to start at the bottom of the career food chain. When you go into an internship or even an entry-level position, you won’t have tons of power and you will, most likely, be asked to do things (like coffee runs) that seem to be way below your pay grade. It’s so important to understand that you have to work your way up in the work world, and working as a camp counselor shows you that. As a camp counselor, you will be dealing with younger kids, moody parents, and making sure that no one ever gets hurt. You may be thinking that this is silly and that kids and parents should just ~mellow out~, but they can’t and they won’t. Dealing with issues of this nature will make going on the coffee runs and printing out notes for a meeting so much easier and fun. Attention to Detail: Mistakes Cannot be Made when Working with Kids Working with kids, of any age, is not an easy feat. You have to ensure that they are safe at all times because they are under your care and supervision. Because of this, you will learn great attention to detail. If you are in charge of lunch time, snack time, medications, injuries, etc. you have to be extremely attentive of detail. You cannot make mistakes when working with kids. You have to be so careful of everything that the kids doâ€"what they eat, what they say, their opinions about camp, etc. Therefore, from an early age, you will learn not to make mistakes in your future office job. It may not be a matter of life and death in the office, but your time at summer camp will prevent you from making mistakes and, therefore, you will look like a star employee to your superiors. Other employees who were never camp counselors might accidentally add Splenda to their boss’ coffee, but not you! Interacting with Kids: You May Want to Start a Family Some Day I love children, but this is not true for many people my age. Working at a summer camp may make you fall in love with children! Okay, this is probably overly optimistic, but it will teach you how to interact with kids and how to keep them safe without overstepping your boundaries as a camp counselor. Camp counseling jobs can help you land babysitting jobs (you can talk to various parents at carpool), aka you fill up your wallet with some more cash. Eventually, these babysitting jobs will help you learn about taking care of children in a more personalized setting, which is what you would be doing somewhat once you start a family (obviously still a very different vibe, but you know what I’m saying). I am in no way saying to start a family right now, I’m just saying that working as a camp counselor will teach you how to look after kids and how to find a nice combination of fun and discipline. Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/adventure-backpack-the-bag-scouts-1807495/ I promise you that working at summer camp is super fun and there are tons of different options as to what type of camp you could work out. You can do indoor, outdoor, full day, half day, athletic, artistic, multi-faceted, etc. You may not get paid that most amazing salary, but it’s a great way to learn a strong work ethic and learn the value of a dollar when you are in high school and in your early years of college. So, don’t just stand there, start thinking about your plans for the rest of the summer and your plans for next summer so that you can experience all of the wonderful things that come with being a summer camp counselor! Happy summer and, to all of my fellow camp counselors, God bless you and good luck!