Remembering Summer 1996*

I was reading the From Our Blog 2 Yours Challenge at SSD, and I decided that I would blog not about a summer job that I had, but a very special experience that I had in the Summer of 1996*. I was 16, almost 17, and it was the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. I had to fulfill my community service hours in order to graduate. We moved to a school that required a set number of hours, the summer after my sophomore year. I thought for sure that they would only make me fulfill half of the required hours because I was only there half of my high school years. Nope! I started looking around for opportunities to fulfill my required hours. During that summer of 1996, I had the opportunity to more than fulfill my required hours. I volunteered to be a camp counselor at Camp Friendship. Camp Friendship is a week-long summer camp for kids under the age of 16 who either have cancer or have a sibling with cancer. Most counselors at Camp Friendship have to be 18 or they do it to fulfill internship requirements for college. I went into that week with the intent of just fulfilling my hours. By the end of the week, those kids had my heart! Hook, line and sinker! I learned so much from observing and interacting with these kids. They are special. They have faced death and they are surviving. Maybe only one day at a time, but they are surviving. They are good kids and are so sweet. They have so much love to give and share. Don't get me wrong... they were kids. We had our share of fights and pranks, wig hiding, time-outs, dancing, swimming, running, obstacle courses, canoeing and crafts. These kids live life to the fullest because they don't know how many tomorrows they have. I learned something special from those kids. I learned to live my life to the fullest. That doesn't mean that I can shirk my responsibilities and live totally in today, but I can enjoy my time on earth and maybe spread some joy!

**Thanks, Becki, for pointing out my mistake in years! :)