March 5, 12:12pm. The most common excuse of why my friends didn't get to return to camp on staff summer after summer, was that their parents didn't think camp would prepare them for "the real world". Well, I call them out on that one. While I was helping bring a baby into this world for the first time, I kept thinking back to all the things I had learned at camp. Not only from my camper years, but from being an OZO, to a counselor, to a specialist, program director and finally the outdoors activities coordinator (fine, also as a "visitor"). I am convinced that the biggest reason I was able to get "Doula Evana" written on the board, and make it the full 11 hours in a room with my client and not leaving once, was because of what camp taught me. Camp taught me that frequently you have to put others before your self. When you have campers, their needs come before your own. You put food on their plate before even considering putting food on your own. (And yes, I know we all hate that rule and sometimes even cheat). When the mother needed me to help her move to get a tiny bit more comfortable in bed, it didn't matter that my body had been standing and wanted to sit for a minute or two. When she needed to take a nap, it wasn't an invitation for me to nap. We were all going to miss a nights sleep, and I was no exception. Camp taught me that even if you have to stay up all night because you have a sick camper, you still get up the next morning with your cabin, get them to flag, and dance with all your campers at breakfast. You put your exhaustion aside for the sake of your campers having the best summer ever, or your client having the best possible birth. Camp taught me that my homesick camper, is just homesick and it may be that the only thing I can do in that moment is be there. That homesickness may never disappear completely, but sitting there and being a shoulder to cry on helps it get smaller. When you are in labor and you are just in pain, I can be there and help you through it, but I can't get rid of it. That pain will be there, but you trust me to help you minimize it, find comfort in my presence, and find ways to move around the pain so that you can get to the end and meet your new baby. Camp taught me so much to help me in my real world. There is no way I would be where I am personally and professionally, if I hadn't spent my summers breathing the fresh, natural air in Webster, WI. This might also be a good time to thank all the staff who impacted my summers and taught me how to grow into what I've become. They were my "doulas" at camp when I was homesick. They taught me to love my experience and teach others that they can love every moment of what they're doing, and at the very least, they taught me that I can make it to the end.
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January 2018
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