I am happy to announce that I am not only still single, but also proud to state that I had one of the best, weirdest, and eye opening experience in my life this past week. I guess it is a little silly for me to be excited about Donna not being right about my future husband hiding somewhere in Kentucky. Then again I prefer walking this journey on my own for awhile. Plus having some guy try to steal my heart while I was in Jackson County would have been ridiculous.
I remember that I was allowed to go to amp, because I needed to "rest", get a break from the shelter, and according to Donna, "fall in love"(imagine the mess I would be in if Donna was right). Looking back on this week, I didn't do any of those things.
On Sunday I arrived at camp and at first I was having some issues adjusting. By the time I went to bed things didn't seem too hard and I felt like for once I would get a break from "everything". Monday went pretty smoothly, check-in, camp fire, it was so nice not having to worry about things getting done or have a resident bitch to me about how their life sucks. Then it came for shower time and of course I was being over ridiculous about how excited I was for shower time and getting ready for bed. As I was busing the girls into their cabin one of the girls looks at me and asks if she can talk to me. The conversation with my camper started about just stupid teenage drama, "My boyfriend is mad at me for talking to another guy blah blah blah he hates me now and so on." Then she started crying and told me all about the abuse she was dealing with and all her fears. After I walked her up and down the docks a couple of times and calmed her down some I sent her to bed. Once she got distracted everything that was bothering her on disappeared and she was fine the rest of the week. There were other things that happened: a kid getting hit in the face with a paddle, a pipe bursting in the bathroom, a guy breaking his knuckles on another guy's face, a camper getting angry and try to start a fight with a counselor,a kid ending up in the nurse's office every time he played a team sport, and well other interesting things too.
Despite all the insanity that went on the ending was what made it all worth it. Not only did these children have fun, but for one week they got to be just children. None of them had to deal with court dates, caseworkers, family issues, and anything else that they have to deal with every other week of the year. Of course not all of the children that came to camp have huge issues that seem unfair for them to have, but the ones that do, have a safe place where someone will love them unconditionally.
This week was crazy, far from a day in the park and my eyes were opened. I haven't just realized this past week that I work in a high stress job or that abuse sucks or that there are children living sucky lives. I already knew that and due to this knowledge I wanted to volunteer at Covenant House this upcoming winter. Of course my plans changed and I decided to just finish up my degree and get a job. Anyways my realization didn't come to me until I was back at the volunteer house on Saturday night thinking over my week and folding my laundry. I was thinking about my past camp experiences and this year and everything that happened and how I handled it all. I knew I always wanted to work with children and after working at the shelter I know I want to work with at risk children. Something I realized after this weekend, that I never really thought about before was, I don't really have a choice. I have been working with at risk children my whole life. I have been working with abused children and children from broken homes and lives. What Kentucky and camp taught me was even if I ran from who I was suppose to be God would still find away to make me do it.
I loved camp and if there is a way for me to do it next year and not be in complete debt I plan on returning to Kentucky and at least do Teen Week again. Even though Donna's prediction of me finding my future husband at camp didn't come true she did get one thing right. I fell in love with camp and because of that I fell in love with Kentucky too. Even though I promised myself that Kentucky was not the end of my journey, I have to admit I wouldn't mind returning every once in awhile. Besides where else can you expect a random bull to be chilling out in your back yard or a whole month of snow days?
