Ayeee Mates,
As previously agreed upon, it has been about 3 weeks since my last blog post, and I am back to keeping this thing updated. In short, I finished up my stuff in Cleveland, moved to Chicago, survived a week of classes, celebrated properly, and spent the awake part of my today recovering.
So before all memory of my summer job is taken over by 300 theatre history terms, I'm gonna write a blog about it. And Mates, if anything in my life is blog worthy, this is.
Without further adieu, allow me to present: "Quick Stories/Lessons learned from my summer Working at a Special Needs Summer Camp"
1. Sticks are the work of the devil. Placed on earth only to be used as weapons, weed whackers, obsessed over, javelined, and collected. Situation: kids are not allowed to go into the woods. Kids LOVE STICKS. Sticks are in the woods. 75% of summer spent sprinting through the woods after a child. Fucking sticks.
2. Kiss your personal space good bye at the door. Have you ever had to peel a human off yourself? Did they then start singing Titanic? I don't feel the need to elaborate here.
3. The self defense skills of a ninja. Because there are a lot of reflexes that are out of anyone's control. And they happen fast.
4. Slow down. Anyone's whose walked anywhere with me (class, finals breakfast, unwanted doctors visits) knows that I keep the pace of someone with a gun to their head. Working with kiddos taught me that just about every human on the face of the planet has a slower pace than mine. And if I just talk, walk, and exist a tad closer to normal speed, people actually understand what I'm trying to get across.
5. Not everyone needs words. I think I prefer non verbal communication. Not that I don't see it's faults, but you slip into non verbal functioning without even realizing it. It's pretty cool.
6. Over chlorinated pools can burn off your tan. Funny that you think I'm kidding.
7. Every behavior is a function of something. Theatre folk, this is like acting. Everyone has reasons for their actions. You may not know what they are or understand them. Hell I almost NEVER know why people do what they do, but everyone has their reasons. Here comes the preaching: Stop judging other people because they're different than you. I decided that needed that amount of emphasis. But seriously, it's really starting to piss me off when people make fun of other people because they don't understand them. Why on earth would anyone be intentionally mean or "weird" or different just to piss you off. I'll tell you why, they wouldn't. The problem is that you don't know what's going on in their head. I totally understand the need to vent and blow off steam, but this impersonal enemy of the week shit is getting old. So seriously. I'm gonna start calling people out on it. And if I do it, feel free to call me out as well. Really folks. Humans need to work on this.
*Gets of soap box*
8. Don't sweat the small stuff. For real though. If someone's not about to die, don't freak out. Cause you'll drive yourself, and the rest of the staff, up the wall. My apologies to the staff (also my family, friends, cast, and that one squirrel I cussed out) during field trip week :)
9. I am not cut out for this kind of work.
10. A new appreciation for the educators, staff, counselors, and families who work with the spacial needs population. Seriously. These people have something very special that I definitely don't have. I learned so much from my co-workers and other volunteers this summer. It's a whole different ballgame. All we see is the tip of the ice burg. Major props.
So there's the short list. I've learned so much more this summer than I can put into words. It's definitely an eye opening experience.
Hmmmm there's a way to cap off this blog, but I can't think of it.
*Insert inspirational quote of your choice here*
Or just make fun of me for blogging about my summer job.
Or for having a blog in general.
I can take it.
Good Night.
Kaitlyn
