Sometimes, it takes stepping outside of your comfort zone to learn things about yourself.
My eldest is a little introverted unless he has a guitar or gaming keyboard in hand. When he asked me if I would volunteer to be a counselor at his summer football camp, I didn’t hesitate in saying yes. The previous year wasn’t as fun as he anticipated. ALL of his teammates were in the lineman camp and he was the lone Ranger on the wide receivers side.
I had anticipated being assigned his dorm section and his group, but this camp doesn’t do that. The dad counselors are the ones that are assigned the overnighters while the moms are assigned the kids that commute. At first I was slightly annoyed. I didn’t sign up to be with other people’s kids. I mean, was I even going to see my son? How was I going to get him out of his shell if we weren’t even around each other?! I decided to just trust the process.
My group ended up being the little dudes ages ranging from 7-11 years old. During the orientation for counselors the camp owner told us to try and use the kids names, it makes them feel welcomed. As a former bartender, I’m TERRIBLE at names and I can only remember drinks, but my friend has a trick I tried… you have to look at the person and say their name back to them. The problem is there were 7 kids, 7 parents, phone numbers flying and chaos with the drop off so I didn’t remember ANYONE’s name; let alone what some of them looked like. Luckily for me, I had two groups of brothers, some besties and a stand alone kid. I started with the stand alone kid, nailed his name, called the others their pair’s name but by the end of the second day I had them down.
I envisioned being a little like a Shepard my sheep just following me through the daily itinerary but in reality I was a little more like Bo Peep. Some of those damn sheep ditched us!
I asked the kids that DID stay by me, if we got ditched by a set of brothers and they said, “I think we did”. The littlest of all the dudes started calling them the “ding dong ditcher brothers”, we all laughed and that is what they became known to us as. I am SO glad the boys were paying attention because I couldn’t remember what the ditchers even looked like! This camp has 1,000+ kids in it over the weekend. I saw them once, then they put their helmets on and went straight to work. But my group helped me and we found them in the cafeteria line.
Looking back on the weekend, I should have suggested to the ditchers that we could all sit together, but I assumed they just would and they didn’t. They took a table off in the distance while the rest of us gathered in one spot together. My son also didn’t eat with us that first lunch.
While we were having lunch I started asking the stand alone kid some questions. Simple questions to get all of them talking together. Since the besties and other set of brothers were there I asked if he had any siblings… turns out he did and that was the only real question I needed to ask before the boys started chatting amongst themselves creating a bond that would only get thicker through the weekend.
We solidified the bond by scrimmaging brothers vs brothers, friend vs friend and an all-time QB during our “break” times. By the time dinner came around this group of kids were thick as thieves. All of a sudden we had “our” cafeteria spot and we all clustered together; we also had “our” spot in the film sessions the boys making sure everyone was going to sit together. My son even joined us.
Throughout the long weekend other older boys would join our scrimmage not as players but as line judges and refs. The cumulative score ended up being 182 vs 147. It was neck and neck until the final day, a couple interceptions changed everything.
After day one, when the parents picked up their little men and I finally got to hang out with mine, it made me wish I would have volunteered earlier for my son. Could I have been set with a group of kids my son’s age and managed to create a bond between them? Would that have made his experience different?
With music taking a more important role than football, I guess we’ll never know.
But, I do know this…I learned a lot about myself during this volunteering weekend.
- I don’t like “working” for food.
- Walking all over St. Thomas campus in Birkenstock’s make my feet angry.
- I can talk to just about anyone.
- It’s weird sharing a bathroom with a stranger.
- I always overpack.
The week/weekend was exhausting but fulfilling. I was EXTREMELY happy to have commuters vs overnight dorm stayers because some of the dads had to search the campus for their boys after curfew. That wouldn’t have gone over very well 😊.
In the end, my son got recognized! He tied for second as a varsity receiver. 2 out of 7 of my little guys got recognized and awarded too.
I think the most rewarding part of it all was the last day, when the little men were asking each other if they were going to do the camp again and if they wanted to be each other’s roommates next year. ❤️