When normal people ask me about camp, they often ask the following two questions:

• What is the best part of being a camp director?
• What is the hardest part?

The best part is hard to pinpoint. I love seeing the youngest campers play. I enjoy watching the older campers grow. Meeting new campers is great, as is welcoming returning campers.

But I think that the best part for me is creating a community that values kindness and compassion. Please do not get me wrong; we are not perfect in this pursuit. Campers can say mean things and disputes will arise, but the purpose of our community is to grow as a group and then grow as individuals.

My children grew up at camp. As a result, they believed that the world was full of upbeat people who smile, talk face-to-face (rather than screen-to-screen) and strive to understand each other. I deeply believe that this has been critical to their growth as young people.

The second question is a bit trickier. I try not to dwell on the “hard parts” since doing so tends to make them loom larger for me. But after some thought, I think the biggest challenge is the fact that camp starts at 100MPH and continues in a sprint for the entire summer. There are no true “days off”. OK, Susie Ma’am and I will catch a movie every couple of weeks. We will also go into Marble Falls once every 3 weeks for our time off, but we are never really “off”. When campers are here, we are still thinking about camp.

On the great side, we love what we do, but maintaining the pace is demanding. Over the years, we have learned ways to pace ourselves, but we are a little jealous of people who have summer vacations over the Fourth of July.

But we would not trade places. We love where we are and what we do. I only share this because I thought you might find it interesting to know what life at camp is like.

Steve Sir