Monday, July 18, 2011

Tonight We:

1. Went to Noodles and got free rice krispies because they forgot Arielle & my food
2. Ate delicious and real fruit at red mango
3. Invested in more stationary and a fun game of "Things" at Target
4. Caught up with good friends and had real life conversations
5. Ran into other staff at Grayhouse
6. Made fun lists about camp
7. Played 6 rounds of things
8. Laughed
9. Couldn't believe that it is week 6
10. Had the perfect and relaxing girls night off

No bad people, just bad action.

I spent all of last semester researching compassion with a professor. It is a complex construct and it overlaps with a lot of other emotions and psychological states. But one of the things that we spent a lot of time talking about is social cognition, and posed the question, "how do we get people to understand that there are not good and bad people, just good and bad action?"

This all came flooding back into my world at mass on Sunday. The gospel reading (Matthew 13:24-30) was the parable about how weeds were planted by the enemy among the good crops. The priest went to explain about how it may not seem fair that this happens, but a lot of things in life are not fair. Yes, this is a cliche, but a lot of times in life we fixate on that, along with placing the blame. However, figuring out "who started it" or who is to blame for a problem or a situation does not allow us to move forward. What we really need to do is focus on the core of the problem so we can address what is wrong, and move forward.

To me, these two concepts are those things that you can talk about for hours. But right now, they apply to my life in various different ways - in friendships, as a counselor, and as a coordinator. I love it when things start to overlap.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Week 3 & 4 in Pictures.

 I had Meghan in 2009 with Molly. We've been pen pals ever since. She is extremely creative and genuine, and I'm so glad I got to see her again! It is crazy that she is finally a Pathfinder.

 This is Emma. She lived in Catawba last week and sat on my lap during the Thursday fireworks show. It was so precious to see how excited she was when they were going off. She sang along perfectly to "Firework" when they played the song.

 Team CILT and Teton Girls. Def. Love them so much.

I'm not usually a big fan of waving my patriotism around obnoxiously, but week 4 at Camp T is a different story. During this week we find as many excuses as possible to chant "USA! USA!" and we dress as American as possible.

Fridays are the best day at Camp. This is mainly because of closing campfire. At the end of closing campfire there is a special ceremony for the campers who can no longer return to camp. As Pathfinder Coordinator, I get to give the medallions to the kids when they are recognized. Last week there were 65 torchbearers, so Mike, one of my village directors, helped me out. We recruited the help of KJ and Tom, the other village director, gave all the kids their candles. It's a very emotional time for all of the kids and we obviously take it very seriously.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

It's a love/hate relationship.

Week 3 was full of ups and downs and intense emotional moments, as well as lots of laughs, creativity and fun. I'm exhausted but still am loving life. I miss some of my friends from Drake but and striving to stay present and live in the moment. It's hard to remember specific moments from last week right now.

Over the weekend Sarah, Sarah, Molly, Emily, Mary Claire, Maggie, Grace, and I drove to Louisville to see our best friend - Taylor Swift - in concert. Once our car was approximately 25 minutes outside of the city, disaster struck. We were driving Eleanor home and her friends who were also headed to the concert told her that it was canceled. Panic ensued as we all googled it, went to her website, checked her twitter, and called our parents to make them do the same thing. Much to our dismay, Taylor canceled her first concert EVER due to doctors orders.

Though twitter blew up with #GetWellTaylor tweet, we were not as sympathetic. Determined to make our trek back to Indy way more fun than the concert, Molly, Sarah M, Grace, & I made hilarious lists about why Taylor ruined our weekend and Grace wrote a haiku about her fingernails. Though our dreams were crushed, we had a great weekend off. We ate pizza and ice cream, helped Grace with her vlog, laughed, and got way more sleep than we would have if we went to the concert.

No worries, TSwift should be better soon and we should be able to get our money back. Sarah M & I are determined to go in September when she is in KC.

Week 4 has been so fun. I can't wait for Friday's festivities and to talk with these girls about how much camp means to them tomorrow.