UniCamp apps due this Friday 5 PM
We have roughly two and a half days until we stop accepting volunteer applications, so for my last ditch recruitment effort I've decided to talk about my own camp experiences a little.
When I think back to when I started camp two years ago, I remember one kid. I don't mean I literally remember only ONE kid. But there was one who pretty much made the whole experience for me, and that was Blue Devil.
I wish I didn't look like such an idiot in this picture because it's the only one I have with him, and it's hard to tell how much I really loved this kid. At first impression, like with all the other kids, I could tell he was going to be an annoying troublemaker. He was going to give me trouble all week! I knew it! God damn it. Those darn rascals.
As the week went on, I realized that he was actually a sweet kid. Sure, he could complain. I mean, all children complain! But he was the one who could pick you up from your lowest lows just by doing or saying the right thing at the right time.
I remember one day I had to take him and another one of my kids to the nurse because he was feeling sick. When it was time to go back to our unit, we started walking back when suddenly he started bolting back to the nurse's office. "Ahhh! What are you doing!" I yelled. I thought to myself, "Grrr I was right from the beginning! That troublemaker!!!!" I checked back to see what kind of hell he was raising in there, but he had actually just ran back because he forgot to give her a thank you hug.
I think my cold, cynical heart made a warm explosion of nice feelings at that moment. In the end, this ended up happening a lot more times than I ever expected.
My co-counselor and I had 9 boys ages 11-12 that year. We tried to teach them some important lessons along the way, but at least made sure they had fun. I can't say if we really changed any of their lives that summer, but they sure changed mine.
The next year, I decided to change things up by joining UniCorps, a program for high school kids dedicated towards service learning and leadership training.
I went into this program with the goal of getting these kids thinking about the idea of breaking from social class and escaping from perceived limitations.
To make a long story short, I don't think I accomplished everything I wanted to, and it's mostly my fault. I was excited that I got these kids discussing social issues, particularly on whether or not it is even possible to escape violence. However, it was only brief. These older kids were more interested in just having a good time during this week.
Did they have fun? Yup. Did we change any lives? Probably not, but there's nothing wrong with that.
My friend Whats-His-Face?! and I recently put together facebook ads that essentially said you'd change lives if you did UniCamp. We got some flack over this because some say we're potentially setting people up for disappointment. They're probably right. When you're an idealist at heart, you pretty much have a lifetime of disappointment waiting for you. So of course, that's where we went wrong.
Still, there remains the notion that you COULD change some lives. You still could make a difference. You still could change your own life. I'm not making any promises, for sure, but the potential is always there.
And isn't that at least mildly appealing?
UniCamp apps are due this Friday (2/23) by 5 PM. You can turn in your application to our table on Bruinwalk. If you don't have one yet, you can get it at www.unicamp.org.
When I think back to when I started camp two years ago, I remember one kid. I don't mean I literally remember only ONE kid. But there was one who pretty much made the whole experience for me, and that was Blue Devil.
I wish I didn't look like such an idiot in this picture because it's the only one I have with him, and it's hard to tell how much I really loved this kid. At first impression, like with all the other kids, I could tell he was going to be an annoying troublemaker. He was going to give me trouble all week! I knew it! God damn it. Those darn rascals.
As the week went on, I realized that he was actually a sweet kid. Sure, he could complain. I mean, all children complain! But he was the one who could pick you up from your lowest lows just by doing or saying the right thing at the right time.
I remember one day I had to take him and another one of my kids to the nurse because he was feeling sick. When it was time to go back to our unit, we started walking back when suddenly he started bolting back to the nurse's office. "Ahhh! What are you doing!" I yelled. I thought to myself, "Grrr I was right from the beginning! That troublemaker!!!!" I checked back to see what kind of hell he was raising in there, but he had actually just ran back because he forgot to give her a thank you hug.
I think my cold, cynical heart made a warm explosion of nice feelings at that moment. In the end, this ended up happening a lot more times than I ever expected.
My co-counselor and I had 9 boys ages 11-12 that year. We tried to teach them some important lessons along the way, but at least made sure they had fun. I can't say if we really changed any of their lives that summer, but they sure changed mine.
The next year, I decided to change things up by joining UniCorps, a program for high school kids dedicated towards service learning and leadership training.
I went into this program with the goal of getting these kids thinking about the idea of breaking from social class and escaping from perceived limitations.
To make a long story short, I don't think I accomplished everything I wanted to, and it's mostly my fault. I was excited that I got these kids discussing social issues, particularly on whether or not it is even possible to escape violence. However, it was only brief. These older kids were more interested in just having a good time during this week.
Did they have fun? Yup. Did we change any lives? Probably not, but there's nothing wrong with that.
My friend Whats-His-Face?! and I recently put together facebook ads that essentially said you'd change lives if you did UniCamp. We got some flack over this because some say we're potentially setting people up for disappointment. They're probably right. When you're an idealist at heart, you pretty much have a lifetime of disappointment waiting for you. So of course, that's where we went wrong.
Still, there remains the notion that you COULD change some lives. You still could make a difference. You still could change your own life. I'm not making any promises, for sure, but the potential is always there.
And isn't that at least mildly appealing?
UniCamp apps are due this Friday (2/23) by 5 PM. You can turn in your application to our table on Bruinwalk. If you don't have one yet, you can get it at www.unicamp.org.