The Final Days of Summer
I am sitting here enjoying a peaceful night to myself. We have about 10 days left until the minis head back to school and all that structure and consistency can return. The time to think and write and breath will return and for the next nine months I will be given the gift of public education for my minis.
When the first week of summer arrived, I was so unprepared for the challenges of doing everything. I flailed and the minis flailed and we were all defeated at the end of that first week. I looked at my calendar and decided to start counting the weeks. Eleven weeks, one down ten to go. FUCK. Maybe that wasn’t the best attitude, but I needed something to show progress, something to give reason for celebration. The second week came and went and then somehow the weeks began to fly by. I looked at the calendar the other day and honestly thought it was still July. It was like our summer went from ten weeks to go, to one week left. Time sped up and when I look back I see the memories of a great summer. Our weeks were filled with adventures, laughing, learning independence and responsibilities. We had fun, we cooked dinners and enjoyed the long days. Now, I’m not saying that everything was perfect, but summer found its groove and we took advantage.
The best part of my summer was doing summer camps for middle schoolers. And to be honest, I didn’t want to. I did two girls camps last year and had a great time. But in that year, I had slowly forgotten all the amazing things that had happened and had remembered the work it took. I forgot the impact the camps have on me and the girls, I forgot the laughing and the learning. And to top it off, this year I added a boys camp to my schedule. As I was gearing up for the camps, it all seemed so overwhelming. As the first week neared, I started to second guess myself, I wondered if this was really going to be worth it. I wondered if the kids would enjoy themselves, if I would enjoy myself. And my biggest fear was that somehow the kids would group together and revolt against all activities. Maybe the fears were meant to be because after I finished my last camp, I was so filled up with joy and amazement, I couldn’t even say one critical thing about the kids that came in. I had the best three weeks of my summer when I was doing the camps. I got to see kids being kids. I got to see kids lift each other up and complement each other. I got to see them work together to build obstacle courses and make up games. I got to experience an innocence that as parents we forget is there, with all the day to day struggles we forget to appreciate the times when our kids are just being kids.
At the end of it all, I was the one who learned the most. I learned that they just want to have fun, and as adults we need to do more of that. I learned that their instinct is to build each other up, and as adults we carry too much comparison towards our peers. I was left with appreciation for their ability to go with the flow and just let things go. I saw two boys getting a little aggressive with each other during a water balloon fight, I was a little worried something might be building, but during the art project they were sitting next to each other and sharing scissors and glue. Whatever happened was literally nothing.
As a side note, it was awesome to have my little men in my boys camp. They got to not only see me doing what I love but they got to be a part of it AND I didn’t embarrass them in front of their peers. I got to be a fun instructor and allowed them the space to be bring their own personalities with them. They both said they hoped I would do the camp next year, which was the biggest compliment of all.
Even though it was such a great experience, it was a lot of work. Each week was a whole new group of kids and the days were planned out with workouts, lectures, walks, art projects, pretty much anything that could take up five hours of time and still be fun. But there is nothing that will take away that feeling I got when I saw the kids working together, being kids and the inclusion it took to be a group. I might forget some of those things as the summer becomes a distant memory, but I did promise one of the groups that I would do a sleep over camp next year.