Being a Counselor at Interlochen has its ups and downs, but just like a mission, I think I'll mostly remember the great stuff from this summer. And just to make sure I remember a few moments from the past week, I'm gonna write them down here.
My girls are constantly asking me questions about myself. One camper in particular, Tay, tries to get some fun answers out of me. One of her questions at lunch yesterday was, what is something weird about you. Granted, I'm weird to a lot of people, but I pull it off. I say I play DnD with confidence, so instead of it being weird, my girls want to play. And, at Interlochen, pursuing art isn't weird like the world would see it, but valued. So I thought long and hard and was coming up blank.
Then, I thought of one weird thing about me especially in a place like Interlochen :) Can you guess?? I'm weird because I go to church, I believe in God, and yesterday I told Tay that. I mean, most of my girls know I go to church, but yesterday when Tay asked, what is something weird about you. I said, "Well, for a year and a half, I talked to people about Jesus in Spanish, all day everyday and I could only call my mom one day a week." Well of course they had questions because when I tell people about my mission I say, "I did volunteer work with the Spanish speaking community in California." But that certainly does NOT sum up what a mission was and they learned today that I speak fluent Spanish cause of Jesus ;) Then I added that along with teaching people about Jesus, we knocked on people's doors, where they told us that we were wasting out time, or stupid, or wrong, and we would respond with... Thanks, have a good day or even better... Do you know anyone in the area that needs service, help with their yard or possibly just someone to talk to? Several girls asked, why are people rude like that and another answered, "Some people just don't want help." As this conversation went on other things came up. They asked what happened when someone said they didn't believe in God and I responded honestly with, "Great, do you know anyone who needs help in the area." After those kinds of questions were exhausted, another on of my girls Alex, asked me if I was Catholic.
I said I was a Christian, and Alex said, "Doesn't that mean you're Catholic." I explained that Catholics have specific rules and things they do that make them different from other christian faiths like Baptists or Evangelicals. She then said, "But you got confirmed right?" Good question Alex. I didn't exactly know how to explain out confirmation to her, so I said that we do indeed get baptized, but they dunk us under the water. They thought that was interesting and of course, funny. It always amazes me how little people know about religion, even those who practice it. It was a good positive experience with religion that I was able to give the girls in my cabin. Now we'll see if any come to sacarment meeting at 9 tomorrow ;)
Some other fun chats we've been having are those about relationships. With boys and girls in the same division, it is a WHOLE new ball game. They don't just see each other mixers or class. They can hang out during rec time, see each other in the cafeteria and pick out their crushes with a lot more ease. Several dates were seen at the last mixer with hand holding and personal one on one conversations, and plans have been hatched since then for the next mixer tomorrow. I've heard from the guys cabins that they have been asking for pointers on talking to girls, especially before mixers :) The girls in my cabin ONLY want to know about my dating life. We as counselors are supposed to keep it vague, but these girls just want to know every little detail. Though they have asked about Adrian's physical traits (which are good, but you know, nothing AMAZING) they've wanted to know a lot more about our emotional connection. The other night during bunk talk, out of the blue - after each of us talked about our perfect date - I hear from someone's bunk, "Glo, have you ever been in love?" Now, as we all know, love is like... a BIG word for me. But I had to admit, I had been in love with Ethan at some point in our relationship, and I do care a lot about Adrian, so I said, yeah, a little bit. Later, they asked a good question. They said, "What is Adrian's best quality?" With ease, I told them that it was that he is humble. Arrogance for me is one of the BIGGEST turns off in a man. Confidence is good, and ability, intelligence and proficiency in what you do is all attractive, but arrogance is not. Something I really like about Adrian is his humility.
Of course they've teased out of me where he is from, his name, how attractive I find him, how long we have been dating and what my end goals are - they know marriage is really important for me - but I am glad that at the moment, I'm dating someone who is a good enough person that I can give the girls something to shoot for in their dating lives. I look at them and I see their innocence. Sure, they are starting to enter the world of dating, but right now, handholding and... dare I say kissing... is as far as it goes. Little do they know how COMPLICATED it all is. But for now, I hope they all get asked to the mixer tomorrow by someone they've had their eyes on :)
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