If you haven’t guessed the summer camp season has started which means I haven’t gotten around to updating this here blog in over a month! I feel like that always happens over the summer when I’m here at camp with super long days. Fortunetly I’ve found a bit of time today to write a quick update about some pretty exciting stuff that has been going on.
Today was Staff Appreciation Day for everyone who works through our Girl Scout Council so they had a bit of a event at one of our sister camps with all types of activities going on that we could partake in if we wanted. The agreement was that we would volunteer an hour or two of our time there to supervise or teach an activity than the rest of the day we could walk around and join in on the different things they had going on. I had my time off first thing so I headed straight for the climbing tower that they have at this camp (I would say it stands between 30 & 40 feet high). I’ve climbed it twice before; once when I was a camper and we took a day trip to this camp, where I only made it half way up, & another time when I was a CIT and again took a day trip to the tower where I made it all the way to the top. Both of those times I took the easy way up, there are three different ways you can go and each is a different difficulty. Ever since I volunteered to go to this sister camp for the day today I had planned on climbing the tower and of course going up the easy way. My plans changed when I got to the tower this afternoon and the only route to the top that was available when it was my turn to climb was the more difficult one. I wasn’t thrilled about it because I didn’t think I could make it to the top and I didn’t want to let myself down by not making it all the way up when I knew I have before, but I buckled myself in and started climbing the more difficult route up the tower because I figured it’s better to challenge myself when something new than to do something again that I already know I can do. One of my co-workers climbed before me and I saw her struggle a little bit (and she climbs on a more regular basis than myself) so I knew if she struggled I would definetly have a hard time.
I wanted to quit afew times because my nerves were getting the best of me and I was shaking so badly but I figured this was the only chance I would have at climbing the tower today, and probably for awhile, so I told myself to keep going. Plus it definetly helped that my co-worker and my boss were on the ground beneath me encouraging me to keep going. My boss even gave me step-by-step (literally) directions of where to put my feet afew times when I didn’t want to look down. People kept telling me that the beginning part was the hardest but I would have to say that the last bit was the hardest for me (that’s when those words of encouragement really came in handy… especially when they said they wouldn’t let me quit)! Long story short… I finally made it to the top and am really quite pleased of myself for doing so. I can’t remember the last time I was THIS proud of myself for doing something. This has definetly been a good pick-me-up for myself which I’ll hold onto for a long time!
After I climbed the tower, my co-worker and I made our way to the lake for our next hour of free time where we played on their water slide!! SOOOO FUN! We have a water trampoline at our camp which is fun but it was nice to do something else for a change. It was a bit hard to climb the blow up stairs to the top of the slide after just getting super out of breath from climbing the tower but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the slide. I must have gone on it six or seven times!
The rest of my day was spent at the lake helping people who wanted to canoe and kayak than lifeguarding at the water slide station. It was a super busy day but I’m glad to be at our own camp tonight so I can sleep in my own bed and hopefully sleep in a bit tomorrow before our next batch of kids come.
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