The Summer Days of June

My summer break has been anything but a break. Currently, I'm working as a camp counselor and I have actually come to have a very lofty love/hate relationship with it. A few benefits of working my job are that I mentor/guide an amazing bunch of kids. I'm able to live on my college campus. I'm also able to develop some amazing friendships. My amazing kids are somewhat an usual case. Of course when you work in a program structured just for rising juniors and seniors, there is bound to be a type of living perfectly fit for a reality show program. Really, can I contact MTV, VH1, or Fox perhaps? Despite the fact that some of them may disturb my spirit in many ways, I ultimately enjoy their company. It's amazing how much I can see myself in some of my children. For instance, I've beheld glimpses into what use to be my naivety, curiousness, and a bit of conceit.
Oh to be a high schooler... Those are definitely times I'm more than happy to not re-live, and I'm sure that most of you can agree.
I've often heard people refer to their high school days as their "glory" years. I've found that those that have succumbed to such confusions have wasted away most of their own adult years. Now, let's not misconstrue my mentality. It is very possible to miss certain experiences and aspects of high school. Personally, I miss conversing with some of my peers, traveling to various band competitions (yes, I was the ultimate band geek), and the rebellious thrill of sneakily talking to boys knowing that if caught, my mother would literally slit my throat. I miss the teeming football games that inevitably collided with the smells of concession food and swirls of the fall night air. Although these memories seem full of all the right fluffiness that could be described for days, it's abruptly halted by bittersweet thoughts of my teenage naivety. I was the very epitome of an ignorant adolescent. I thought my mother was out to make my life utterly miserable, so I acted out in ways that I ( when looking back) regret. I also spent more time focusing on my social life than my academics, although, I was every bit of an honor student.
To pull this blog back full circle, my kids, while they are here, are my life. I've found myself wanting them to be as successful as possible, but then I see that many lack the seriousness and drive that it takes to be successful through college. How can I judge though? How imprudent was I? How selfish was I? I think that this experience has truly taught me that it's important to stress the importance of tolerance and unity among my future students when I start teaching. I'm reminded that although a big part of being a teenager is to possess the "invincibility" attitude, it's also recognizing that you truly don't know everything. I suppose that actuality will eventually come in life after the fairy tale ends, and all the tings that molded you as a child start to melt away.
I suppose a bit of my nurturing side wants my students to safely soak up every bit of life like a dry sponge. I want them to resist the mindless drama and discover that they can teach each other if they are willing. Ultimately, the reality is that they must, just as I, hit their own brick wall.

That isn't a terrible thing.

-J