In 2012, I started spending a week a summer at a camp in Michigan. Since then, I've returned every summer and participated or worked in almost all aspects of the camp. I've been a camper at every age, been through the CIT program, and worked in most programs, including the CIT program this past summer.

One of my favorite activities since I started going to camp was rocketry.  9 year old me loved getting to put together a model rocket and see it fly at the end of the week, because when you're that young seeing something you made work is a magic experience. I went back to that program every year, built every rocket multiple times, and loved it as a camper. Then, in 2021, I started working in it, helping kids get the same experience that I had and teaching them about the rockets. I became head in 2023, and then the entire program became my responsibility, and I took it very seriously. The program ran very smoothly because I'd spent so much time in it, and we've had a 100% launch rate for the past several summers. Every single kid that signed up for rocketry saw their rocket fly.

One of my other favorite activities at camp has always been waterskiing. I grew up waterskiing, and have been doing it for 15 years now. I didn't start skiing at camp, but I've been skiing there every summer since 2015. I loved getting to go out on the water as a camper, and even though a lot of the program time is sitting on a boat watching others ski, I still had a great time. I met one of my best friends in the program, started working in it in 2022, and became head in 2023. At that point, I had to make sure the whole program ran smoothly, and I learned a lot about how to manage staff and delegate responsibilities to make sure all the small things that needed to be done to run a smooth program got done.

This past summer, I worked as the coordinator for the first stage of the CIT program. I got groups of 16 year olds for two weeks at a time, instead of the one week cycle most of camp runs on. My main responsibility was to build the groups I got, many of which were full of people that had never met before, into close friends and teach them how to be role models to the younger kids. It was a little bit strange because I had been in exactly their place 3 years ago, but I dealt with it and did a very solid job, meeting the goals every session and setting them up to go into the second stage of the program strong. 

The photo for this is one of the "treehouses," structures in the woods where all the CITs live. I had one of them for me and my kids, and lived the summer listening to the woods with no power and only screens for walls.