One of the most common questions I get asked is how on earth I ended up in Chicago. I’ve got a two minute response down pat, but for those looking for a longer explanation, there’s this…
In 1994 I moved from Auckland to Sydney, Australia. I had graduated with a marketing degree and was looking to do a bit of traveling. Growing up in New Zealand, it’s expected that all young adults take a year or two to travel the world after graduation and before starting life. The majority of my friends went to the UK and beyond; I wanted to go to Australia. I landed a job through a temp agency working for the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education. It was an office position; nothing too fancy – a straight up 9 to 4 job in the Sydney suburbs.
After two years in that position, I was itching to try something new. I had saved a good amount of money (renting an apartment and relying on public transport) so I had plenty of options. I picked up a brochure somewhere about the opportunity to work in the United States as an international camp counselor. The opportunity promised the experience of a lifetime. It was for a finite period time (just the summer) and I had actually done some work to line up a job back in New Zealand upon my return (in advertising). The goal was experience the camp, travel a bit and then return home.
In May 1996 I flew from Sydney to Connecticut via Los Angeles and New York (we had an 8 eight delay and caught the subway into the city and walked through the lobby of the World Trade Center). I spent three days in training there where I received my final destination: YMCA Camp Duncan in Fox Lake, Illinois (about 75 minutes north west of Chicago).
It was a good news, bad news kinda situation: I arrived at the camp in one piece… but my luggage didn’t. Seriously. Keep in mind I had probably been wearing the same clothes for a number of days. I was absolutely exhausted. In fact, I have a very vivid memory of standing in the shower where I lost all emotions and I seriously just wanted to go home. This sucked. Big time.
My luggage would eventually arrive – a good 48 hours later.
To work as a camp counselor at Camp Duncan, there’s an initial one-week period of intensive training (up at 7am; lights out at 11:30pm). It was insane. It was brutal…but it was incredible. I was told I would be a resident camp counselor. That is, I would be spending 24 hours a day in a cabin of young campers along with another counselor. Some of the other international camp counselors were assigned to be “day camp” counselors and hang with kids only during the day; mine was a full time gig. As you can imagine, it was extremely demanding – but I loved every minute of it (even when I didn’t). I have hundreds of stories. Literally. YMCA Camp Duncan serves a number of specialized groups: burn camp, Tourette’s, diabetics, etc. along with the more traditional camp groups (split between kids from both ends of the economic spectrum). Needless to say, many of my experiences had a profound impact on me.
But you want to know why and how I stayed right?
During the summer, time-off is extremely limited. There was a sign-up sheet in the staff room where you had to write your name in one of the limited spaces for time off (we’re talking an evening here folks). I wrote my name in the July 4th row. By the way, that date meant nothing to me; it was just much needed time off. A couple of my friends signed up on for the same night; an Australia bloke and an English lad.
There was an (American) counselor who offered to take us out for the night (she had a car). Coincidentally, she was the one who picked me up from the airport (sans luggage) several weeks earlier. The plan was for her to grab a couple of her former college room mates and for us to check out a traditional 4th of July fireworks display. We ended up outside the Arlington racetrack after visiting a summer carnival for the evening. I have no idea why we weren’t inside; I’m assuming we had limited funds to get in!
One of her friends would later become my wife. And yes, I had to make that phone call home saying my plans had changed a bit.
In order to stay in the country, I had to apply for a specialized work visa through the camp. This allowed me to continue at the camp – even after the summer for another 18 months. My role changed from a traditional camp counselor to working with outside groups such as a corporate training groups, school groups, scouts, Indian guides, etc. I lead team building/trust challenges and high ropes courses; I did tractor rides and lead camp fire singalongs! It was hard work involving very long hours. Some of my fondest memories were working with disadvantage/troubled/abused teens from the inner city of Chicago. Some of their stories were harrowing yet I received profound blessings and enrichment from my time with them.
My time at YMCA Camp Duncan cemented some of the greatest memories of my life. If you know of a young adult looking for a life-changing experience and adventure, give them a brochure on working as a camp counselor.
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