Wednesday, July 04, 2007 :::  
RYLA rocks

Wow, another year of RYLA has come and gone. That week of utter utopia always goes so fast.

We were the Manly Mastodons this year:

(Top row: Shawn, Aleksey, Erik, Josh, Michael, Me; Middle Row: Matt, Mat, Everett, Adam, Jose; Bottom Row: Nate, Calvin, and Nick)

This was an awesome group of guys. Very dynamic. Very unique. All very different. Yet they all clicked together. And I think they all took something worthwhile away from Camp.

This was my 6th year as a Counselor. Crazy to say that. This was also the first year where I was one of the two senior counselors on the guys side of camp. Myself and the other senior counselors, Ed C have both been there the same number of years. I remember when I first became a counselor how awesome I thought the senior counselors at that time were. They were the greats that were there even when I was a camper. I didn't look up to others more than I did to them. And they've moved on and that position has more or less fallen to me. Trippy. Very trippy...

I've been doing a bunch of thinking recently about RYLA and my role as a counselor. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too old? I'm 25 and a these kids are 15-17. None were even born in the same decade as me (the 1980's). I usually end up deciding that I'm not too old. It's definitely harder to relate to them than it use to be. And over the last few years I've noticed myself becoming more father-like as a counselor as opposed to big-brother like. I don't think that's a bad thing, and I think it works for me. I'm not ready to leave the cabin just yet. I feel like I can still do good things in the cabin. But over the next few years, I see myself doing different things at camp. Not sure what exactly, but something different...

I got a bunch of RYLA folk together for food before I left for Chicago and we had a good showing:

Soup hearts RYLA.

::: posted by Soup at 4:35 PM:::

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