A Lesson I Learned the Hard Way

Going on five summers of working at camp, I have wore different hats that all revolve around "creating magic" for campers. At the beginning of summer when all the new counselors arrive a common question is, "Do you have any tips or tricks that can help one become a better counselor?'

The standard, textbook answer would be, "Get your rest, drink water, and have fun." But the answer goes way deeper than that and this story illustrates just that.

It was my second summer working at Widjiwagan and I had been given the opportunity to be a nation chief, a role that is one step higher than a counselor. This meant a lot of running around, creating weekly schedules and activities, and supervising counselors from 6:30am to 6:30pm. Every Wednesday was our "Big Game", one of the most hectic days of the week. A lot of preparation went into creating an all-camp game based on a specific theme for the week. All of the counselors would dress up to represent the theme and camp would be transformed. I looked forward to these days, but when 6:30pm rolled around, I would always be exhausted.

The theme for Session 6 was western and Wednesday was here before I knew it. So in a typical western fashion, I donned a black, long-sleeve button-down shirt that had horses and riders with lassos depicted on it, a pair of denim shorts and a straw hat. That Wednesday, the temperature reached above 100-degrees by 10am and stayed above it until after all the campers went home for the day. I instructed my group of counselors to take water breaks every 30 minutes accompanied with a shade break whenever they felt it necessary. I ran around that day doing my normal tasks and just kept going and going and going. The campers and counselors did great, they drank their water and we only had 5-10 campers get dehydrated and that was easy to fix with some air conditioning and some Gatorade. The day ended, the Big Game was a success and all the campers were being transported home.

I was working car-riders and all of a sudden everything went black. I remember sitting down and pulling my water bottle out of my backpack. The bottle was filled with lukewarm water and I could not remember the last time I took a sip out of that water bottle. Did I even take a sip of water that day? I do not know. These were the first stages of heat exhaustion and I was fading quickly. The nurse was called and I was taken to health lodge where I was given the Gatorade and air condition treatment along with a heart-rate monitor and ice packs on my head and neck. A day that normally ended at 6:30pm did not end until later that night when I was fully recovered.

I pushed myself to my physical limit for what extent? To create magic ... but one is unable to create magic if they have nothing to give. I did not take care of myself that day, but I can say that I learned my lesson. So long story short, a successful counselor is one that can take care of themselves (rest, drinking water, and having fun) so that they can provide those opportunities for their campers. One cannot pour from anything from an empty glass.