I made a big decision and acted on it twelve years ago, this Memorial Day weekend. It turned out to have been one of the best decisions I have ever made.
I decided to go to summer camp.
I was about to turn twenty-one when I started thinking about it and had just left my third college, midway through the second semester.
I decided I needed a change; one that would take me as far from business management classes as possible. I thought of what I enjoyed doing—working with kids, and working hard. I looked at applications to work on a Disney Cruise line. Seriously; how fun would that be??
But then I thought about what it would be like to live on a boat for however long, and what it would be like to be out there on the ocean and have something happen with my diabetes. I knew there were doctors on cruise liners, but I also knew that a cruise ship doctor isn’t going to be a great diabetes doctor. So I kept looking at job options for myself.
I had lived with diabetes for ten years, but things hadn’t been working for me. I knew my doctor wasn’t happy with me, and simply kept telling me to come back every 2-3 months. I had been on a pump for a year and a half, but I just knew my body wasn’t happy with my typical A1c. I knew it wasn’t working.
I knew if I didn’t make a change with my diabetes, something was going to have to give.
I thought it would be me.
I found an application to work at a summer camp for diabetic kids. I had attended a summer camp after being diagnosed, and it was okay. Not stellar, but okay. It was worth a shot. *I* was worth it.
After going through the application and interview process, the Diabetic Youth Foundation hired me to be work as the Arts and Crafts person for the summer at Bearskin Meadow Camp. They suggested I come up to the camp over Memorial Day for what they call Work Weekend; as many families and staff come up as possible to de-winterize the camp and get it open and ready for the summer.
Nervously, I said okay. My sister and I drove up and were doing okay until we entered Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park and saw the piles of snow by the side of the road.
Ut oh.
Snow?!? At summer camp?!
What had I gotten myself into?
I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.
