I haven't updated in SO LONG! I apologize! I do promise that I will try to update as much as possible in the new year, it's my non-resolution. Let's be honest, no one keeps those and just as many of you readers will be doing this summer, I too will likely be unable to update very often in camping season.
I still have a new post here though! I have decided to expand authorship, and the "I" is now "we." Now you'll be reading posts on various subjects in camp life from myself, Stormy, and from my good camp friend Goose. The following has been written by her and will act as her introduction. A little taste of the Goose life, where she's coming from, etc.
- Stormy
"Hi, I'm Goose, and I'm the art director..."
In the spring of 2007, I wandered into a summer job fair at the university I was attending at the time. Being located in the mountains of North Carolina, there were a LOT of camps in attendance. My ambitions were a bit nebulous at that time--I knew that I wanted to work at a camp, but I didn't really know what I wanted beyond that.
There was an entire boardroom dedicated to the camps in attendance. Boy Scout camps, Girl Scout camps, YMCA camps, private camps. I took every flyer that was handed to me and wrote down my name and number and email address approximately 5,732 times (or so it felt by the time I was done). I shoved applications into the notebook I was carrying and away I went.
I filled out applications, I did phone interviews. I had my eye on a lush, beautiful private girls' camp south and west of Asheville. But the director of a Girl Scout residential camp a couple hours east of Asheville talked me into coming down one weekend to take a tour of the camp...and to interview me. She told me she'd call me no later than the beginning of May and let me know something.
So I waited (and that private girls' camp sent me a polite rejection letter). The first week in May, I was out and about with my best friend when my phone rang. It was that director, calling to offer me the position of. . .
. . . art director.
My reaction was one of surprise. I said yes without thinking, and when I got off the phone, I turned to my best friend and said, "What did I just agree to?"
When I initially applied, I thought that I wanted to be a regular camp counselor. I had put down art specialist as my second choice because, well, why not? I had taken a lot of art classes in high school, I grew up doing a lot of arts and crafts with my mom and in various other settings. I never thought I'd get hired to do THAT over chasing kids around all day. But there I was, a contract in hand agreeing to do. . . what, exactly?
My first day at camp, the director took me down to the little craft house on the lake, handed me a stack of badge books and a key, told me the camp ranger would be bringing me an air conditioner at some point, pointed out a handful of things that she was hoping I'd find useful (which I suspected was code for "make these go away somehow, but creatively") and told me to have fun as she walked out the door.
In arts and crafts, your instructions are mostly commonly in the form of a vague wave and "Just...come up with something". Hot glue sticks are worth their weight in gold. Wax is best scraped off the floor, table and wall with a popsicle stick. Your coworkers aren't trying to prank you if they stuff dryer lint in your camp mailbox...most of the time. Don't ever throw away broken crayons, you can use them in a hundred different ways. Neither your staff nor your campers will EVER get tired of doing tie-dye, even if you do. Glass jars are not a good substitute for crafts calling for plastic bottles. You're going to find paint on your elbow two weeks after you leave camp. You will be cleaning from the day you start till the day you quit, and people will expect miracles.
Welcome to arts and crafts. This is my life.
- Goose
I still have a new post here though! I have decided to expand authorship, and the "I" is now "we." Now you'll be reading posts on various subjects in camp life from myself, Stormy, and from my good camp friend Goose. The following has been written by her and will act as her introduction. A little taste of the Goose life, where she's coming from, etc.
- Stormy
"Hi, I'm Goose, and I'm the art director..."
In the spring of 2007, I wandered into a summer job fair at the university I was attending at the time. Being located in the mountains of North Carolina, there were a LOT of camps in attendance. My ambitions were a bit nebulous at that time--I knew that I wanted to work at a camp, but I didn't really know what I wanted beyond that.
There was an entire boardroom dedicated to the camps in attendance. Boy Scout camps, Girl Scout camps, YMCA camps, private camps. I took every flyer that was handed to me and wrote down my name and number and email address approximately 5,732 times (or so it felt by the time I was done). I shoved applications into the notebook I was carrying and away I went.
I filled out applications, I did phone interviews. I had my eye on a lush, beautiful private girls' camp south and west of Asheville. But the director of a Girl Scout residential camp a couple hours east of Asheville talked me into coming down one weekend to take a tour of the camp...and to interview me. She told me she'd call me no later than the beginning of May and let me know something.
So I waited (and that private girls' camp sent me a polite rejection letter). The first week in May, I was out and about with my best friend when my phone rang. It was that director, calling to offer me the position of. . .
. . . art director.
My reaction was one of surprise. I said yes without thinking, and when I got off the phone, I turned to my best friend and said, "What did I just agree to?"
When I initially applied, I thought that I wanted to be a regular camp counselor. I had put down art specialist as my second choice because, well, why not? I had taken a lot of art classes in high school, I grew up doing a lot of arts and crafts with my mom and in various other settings. I never thought I'd get hired to do THAT over chasing kids around all day. But there I was, a contract in hand agreeing to do. . . what, exactly?
My first day at camp, the director took me down to the little craft house on the lake, handed me a stack of badge books and a key, told me the camp ranger would be bringing me an air conditioner at some point, pointed out a handful of things that she was hoping I'd find useful (which I suspected was code for "make these go away somehow, but creatively") and told me to have fun as she walked out the door.
In arts and crafts, your instructions are mostly commonly in the form of a vague wave and "Just...come up with something". Hot glue sticks are worth their weight in gold. Wax is best scraped off the floor, table and wall with a popsicle stick. Your coworkers aren't trying to prank you if they stuff dryer lint in your camp mailbox...most of the time. Don't ever throw away broken crayons, you can use them in a hundred different ways. Neither your staff nor your campers will EVER get tired of doing tie-dye, even if you do. Glass jars are not a good substitute for crafts calling for plastic bottles. You're going to find paint on your elbow two weeks after you leave camp. You will be cleaning from the day you start till the day you quit, and people will expect miracles.
Welcome to arts and crafts. This is my life.
- Goose
Yay, glad you guys have finally updated! Looking forward to more posts :)
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