Never Give Up

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Observando

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Day 1 of Session 3 at Camp: rain from the moment we wake. It pours and pours. My hair's frizzing, my staff t-shirt is drenched, and I am doing my best to smile at each parent and child I greet. 

We swim every single day, and there was hesitation about what to do on this first day. We always swim. We always conduct swim tests. 

I'm old-school. I was raised with the notion, "camp will always run." My role models pushed me when I needed to be pushed. They threw my cautious 19-year-old self into the deep-end & it worked because I knew they'd save me if I drowned. It worked because I respected them enough and cared for the kids to make just about anything work. 

My poor staff: we told them all to come down dressed to swim. The swim tests would happen. Camp would run. 

I knew I had an amazing staff all summer -- hard-working, positive, and loyal -- but they proved it to me on days when things were hard but we lifted one another up. That Free Swim was one of my favorites of the summer. People dove into the water -- staff, kids, teens. We literally danced in the rain. From Day 1, you could feel that sense of family. We are a never-ending web of tight knots.

 

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