When I was 4-years-old my mom enrolled me in a Town of Oyster Bay day camp at Marjorie Post Park on Long Island and it made my summers the best that they could be. I went there from the time I was four until the time I was 12, which is what the camps age limit is. I remember loving all my counselors each year and always having the best summers. Between there being the yearly carnival, all of the trips that we take and all of the in park activities, I just loved going there everyday. I could never wait to go back and was so sad when it was my last year at the camp. I had always said that when I was old enough I would become a counselor there and I did.

Last summer, I started working as a camp counselor at Allen Park, which is another park in the town program and honestly I really love the job. My first year I was so excited to be a counselor and be able to give kids the experience at camp that I had when I went. I had the same exact feeling this summer as a second year counselor. The kids I get to be a counselor for and the people I work with make going to my job so much fun. As a counselor now, I love putting all the effort we can into the carnival to make sure the kids have the best time with the theme we choose that year. Also, I love to make sure they have a lot of fun on the trips and at the in-park activities, like pizza day and ceramics. The goal of the summer is to make sure the kids are loving it, that’s what the counselors are there for, to make sure they’re safe and having an amazing time.

I am so grateful for this job leading me to meeting so many new people I never would have met and helping me to create so many close friendships. I am able to see my friends everyday and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I also love being able to play with the kids and give them such a fun camp experience like I had when I was younger. You form such a bond with the kids, the parents and the people you work with while doing this job, it’s an opportunity I would never want to pass up.

I am going to college to become a high school teacher and even though I work with the younger kids (I had the 6-year-olds this summer), I know it still gives me the leadership experience I need and the experience working with children. I know that this job will teach me how to have the responsibility, patience, respect and leadership ability to become an amazing teacher.

This past Friday was the last day of camp and just like that six weeks of my summer flew by faster than I thought that they ever could. Through all of the unbearably hot days and the early mornings, the kids and my coworkers make it all worth it. I’m always so sad when it comes to the end of the six weeks because I will definitely miss the kids and all of the people I had gotten used to seeing everyday. I’m so happy I have the opportunity to be a camp counselor and have the chance to have an impact on the kids like my counselors had an impact on me.

I know that younger me would be very happy that I have become a counselor like I always wanted to be. Until next summer Allen Park!