Deepbluesix’s Weblog

Monday June 2

It really is good to be back here. You can get caught with the familiar and get disappointed if it isn’t exactly how you left it (just like I’d be disappointed if I expected this summer to go as well and in the same way as last), but it’s also really easy and nice to fall back into a routine in a comfortable place with comfortable people. There are, of course, always, people I’m not big fans of…meh. But the rest I’m already good friends with, which is always good. Maybe it’s not always a good thing to be good friends with your boss and your coworkers (I just said good so many times), but it only helps here. Hooray. I don’t know, it’s noon on the second day and I’m tired already…probably because I was thinking about how exhausted I was last summer and it made me tired in anticipation.
But anyway, so last night at midnight I set up my slackline and played around on it with a couple of people. Found the perfect spot, right outside (what I hope will get cleaned out and become again) the staff lounge. It wasn’t too well lit, but a headlamp and not caring fixed that. I thought about leaving it til morning but didn’t want to do the dew, so. I took it down. And now after a morning of scrubbing pie irons, talking about what a counselor should be (handsome and “enthusiastically good”), and a nature hike, I’m sitting in the dark hogan on Flora until lunch. Baller.

Saturday June 7, 2008

It’s crazy how much days can run together—how one day seems forever long and you can’t even remember what you did, and how the entire timeline of a week can be totally blurred to just include “things I did this week” with no specific timeframe. We went on the trail on Thursday, which was a lot of fun, minus whiners who shouldn’t be employed here (why would you work at a camp if you hated strenuous activity AND the outdoors?) and not knowing exactly where to stop. We hiked from Petites Gap to the footbridge on the James, which ended up only being 10 miles. We also started after lunch Thursday and were done at 10:30 on Friday, so that was pretty good. Thru-hikers are some of the coolest people you can meet, as long as they haven’t already been jaded by an obnoxious large group (which we kind of were). We met these two guys from Israel who started us off at Petites Gap with a Hebrew chant of encouragement and ended up passing us at some point and being at the shelter when we got there. It was this father and son (25 and 50?) who had done all the major trails in Israel I guess, and they found the AT online and decided they wanted to do it together. So they picked up to the US to hike the whole thing. It’s so cool that they did that, and they were supremely nice people. I love when you’re reminded of just how many people there are that you’ll never know…probably tons of them with amazing stories that you’d love to know but never will. It’s awesome when you meet some of those people, feel inadequate about yourself, and are moved to go and do and see just to absorb all the diversity that the world is obviously teeming with.

On that note…today was a wonderful day. We got to stay in the AC all day, doing CPR and first aid training, then played with my bosses’ amazing kids, and got done by 8:20. That’s 12 whole hours all to myself. I love how getting done at 8:20 on a Saturday means a short workday, but whatever. I got a glorious shower and get to fart around until I go to bed early, if I can bring myself to. Something we were talking about today did get me thinking though, and reminded me of why I love this job so much. There really is no such thing as a bad kid. My old (wonderful) boss Zack used to say that all the time, and I love that it’s true. There are behaviors that are bad, and things we don’t like that kids do, but there’s no such thing as a bad kid; every bad behavior exists for a reason, whether it’s because they were taught bad habits, don’t get enough attention, or don’t get enough discipline. There’s always a reason though, and in almost all cases, there’s also a remedy. With the right kind of attention and love, all kids are good kids. I get to see that all the time. I love it. I also love the already good kids; the super perceptive ones, who come up to you and ask if that girl is homesick and what they can do to help. It’s amazing to me the depth to which kids understand things and really can achieve things…I know I really really love kids, but I also love just the fact that such young people can have so much to offer, and also that they have so much wonder about the world. It’s exciting when kids get excited about things like nature and how things work; being around that makes you young again. And even if you don’t like kids, you have to like seeing the world like one, because there’s nothing like it.

I might love my job too much. I should think about something else to talk about.