I GUESS YOU COULD SAY the job started out being about me. I was a counselor-in-training at a summer camp for Christian Scientists—really psyched to be there. More than anything, I wanted my stint at camp to include tons of healings, tons of progress. Not the worst things in the world to want! But after a couple weeks at camp, I got a little discouraged. I felt like I wasn't going anywhere.
Being a counselor-in-training really forces you to get outside yourself. When I was a camper, I was always looking out for myself—making sure I was having the most fun I could possibly be having. But when you're the one in charge, everything's different. You know from the start that you're there to take care of others. Everything you do is about making sure that your campers are having fun and progressing and feeling good about the camp experience.
That's definitely what I was there to do—both in tangible ways, and in ways that maybe weren't so obvious, like praying about problems that came up, making sure I was thinking productively about my campers and other staff members. But I definitely wouldn't have minded if a little growth was going on in my life, too.
