Ironwood Remembrances

My mind has been spinning the last couple of days as I've been remembering where I was a year ago. Tuesday night, I laid in bed for an hour thinking through my time at Ironwood.I had such an amazing summer at Ironwood, and I don't want to forget it. I don't want to forget the good times, I don't want to forget the bad times, and I especially don't want to forget the hard times.

The whole summer was completely outside of my comfort zone. First, I was at camp. I've never been a camp person and not really an outdoorsy person. Second, I was in California. I've never had a desire to be in California let alone visit. I have more desire to visit California now after being at Ironwood than before. Third, I was a counselor. I've never held camp counselors with the highest esteem. They're always pushy, want to become your best friends, ask annoying and too personal questions, and they tell you what your supposed to do the whole week. Fourth, I didn't know anybody at camp initially. The few people from my school were acquaintances. I was flying 2000 miles away to a place I had never been, and I knew no one. Fifth, I had mandatory lifeguard training, and I can't swim.

I remember the flight to CA was awful. Flying is not pleasant in the least bit. I had to be at the airport at five or six, so it was an early rise. I had a direct flight, and I arrived in CA around 2. Mom and Dad bought me breakfast, but I hadn't eaten anything since then, and I was starving. When I arrived and met up with my ride, I was told we needed to wait at least another hour for the others in our group, but we would get food as we left town and headed to camp. As it was Memorial Day and we wanted to avoid traffic, we took the longer route back to camp which made us arrive just in time for dinner with no opportunity to find our cabins, put our luggage away, or see the camp in daylight. The rest of the night was a blur of moving tables, meeting people, getting lost on camp, filling out paperwork, and feeling so out of place.

I remember the pit in my stomach which arrived everyday as lifeguard training grew closer. I felt sick as I got ready, and it kept growing as I walked down to the Lake. It was there as I jumped in the water, and only went away after I finished my eleven laps for the day and was finally allowed to go. I never wanted to be a lifeguard, but I wanted to make it through and do my best. I did my best; I've never worked so hard, but swimming is not my thing. I managed to pass the big three tests--swim eleven laps non-stop, retrieve three rings spaced apart without breathing, and then retrieve a ten pound weight from the bottom of the lake and swim back using one arm under two minutes. I truly have no clue how I managed to pass those, but somehow I did. I, however, failed my final test. After I cried for about an hour and talked to my mom and cried in the shower some more and thought everything through, I was fine. Through all of the training I kept telling myself I didn't want to be a lifeguard because the responsibility is massive, and I didn't believe I wasn't qualified enough as a swimmer to rescue people. I truly didn't want to be a lifeguard, but I had made it so far and worked so hard that when it wasn't enough I just had to cry and cry as a way to relieve the pressure and stress. I highly enjoyed the rest of my summer being the "frog"--the person who checked in and out the campers from the lake.

I remember the greeting of the campers on Monday morning. The Broken I Family, aka, BIF made so much noise when our campers arrived we scared Ikes and Rivertown teams and their arriving campers. In fact, anytime with my BIF was fantastic. I loved our hiking trip. I loved singing together. I loved our Saturday meetings with Mr. Scott's words of wisdom and advice. I loved how we became a family, yet we didn't fight or have family bickerings. I loved how we didn't have any hook-ups or relationships on our team. Not to brag, but we had the best team of the summer. I loved how the guys would egg Mr. Dennis on during campfire with the stories.  

I fell in love with juniors. They are so much fun to be with and around. Yes, I was a mother to them most of the time--telling them when to get up, reminding them to get a shower, brush their teeth, hang-up their clothes, eat their food, drink their water, helping them find all the things they lost, and much more. I loved the talks I had with some of my girls. I loved singing them to sleep every night. I know it sounds super corny; let me tell you how it happened. My first night with my first week of campers I couldn't figure out how to put them to sleep so they wouldn't talk all night. Kristen, a second year counselor, suggested letting them talk as you showered , but when you came out they had to be quiet. Well, I tried that replacing the shower with journaling. However, the girls were way too noisy; I came out and told them it was time to sleep because we had a super busy day ahead of us. For some reason, I started singing, and they were quiet. The second night, a camper requested for me to sing again; after that I sang my girls to sleep every night. It's one of the things I miss the most. I sang our camp songs we would sing day after day, so the girls would learn them; I sang songs from choir which I loved. Earlier in the summer, I sang more songs; by then end, I sang less because I realized the girls were asleep faster. Some nights, I'm positive I was half asleep as I sang the songs. I even sang my girls to sleep on camp-out nights.

So many amazing times and moments happened those twelve weeks much more than I've discussed in this post. That's what happens when I don't trust myself but trust God. But that will have to wait for another post.