Career Advice

I'm keeping things simple for today's Blog Every Day in May Challenge. My advice is this:

Figure out what you love and then figure out a way to make money doing it.

It makes me so sad (and annoyed/frustrated) when I hear people (especially people around my age) say things like "I guess I'll do education and be a teacher, I don't know what else to do with an English degree" or "I don't really like engineering, but I'm going to make a lot of money." and the one that makes me cringe the most, "I really wanted to study art, but there's no jobs with that and my parents wouldn't let me, so I'm going to be a nurse because I'll be guaranteed a job out of university." I realize that not everybody knows exactly what they want to do and interests might change along the way. But the reality is that in this day and age your career is a big part of who you are, you're going to be doing it for a while. Why spend all that time doing something you don't like? 

You might not make a ton of money doing what you love (I am pretty confident I will not achieve millionaire status working at camp), but as long as you live within your means (something our society is pretty awful at) why not spend your life doing what you love? There are so many options out there that with a little bit of creative thinking and hard work I truly believe that everybody can find a job that they love.

Being Single

I'll be the first one to tell you that I'm a big ol' scaredy cat. Haunted Corn Maze? No thanks. Walking across the field alone in the dark? Not happening. Roller Coasters? Not a chance. I fast forward through the "scary" scenes in Disney movies...let that one sink in for a second. 

As much as I hate all those things I would gladly suck it up and sit in the very middle of the dark field, watching the scene with the wolves from Beauty & The Beast and get on a roller coaster through a haunted corn maze if it meant I could get rid of my ultimate fear. Being Alone.

I joke about being born in the wrong era because as much as I love camp, all I really want to be when I grow up is a 50's housewife. I just want to get married, have babies, dress up in cute dresses and wear pearls and have supper on the table when husband comes home at 5:00. Although I also really want to marry a farmer in which case I want to grow up to be Ree Drummond. Anyway...the point of that is I'm nowhere's close to accomplishing either of those scenarios. So I'm forced to confront my fear everyday. And it's HARD.

My parents have been together since they were in high school and I always assumed that would happen for me too, but it didn't. Then I assumed I would meet someone in university and we'd spend our 20s falling in love and having adventures. That didn't happen either. So I'm constantly being forced to adjust my expectations. I know I don't "need" a husband. But I want one. I know that I am perfectly capable of fostering/adopting children on my own, but again, that's not what I want. 

I'm such a huge believer that everything happens for a reason so I am constantly reminding myself that everything will work out the way it's supposed to work out, even if it's not the way I planned. I pray a lot for patience and also that if I'm meant to meet "the one" and get married that I will be okay with that, because right now I'm not. The thought of going through life single terrifies me, I tell people that my biggest fear is being alone, but I rarely go into details, because just thinking about it makes me cry. 

Within the past six months people I went to high school and university with have really started settling down every holiday brings a new engagement announcement. (Seriously, no holiday is safe. One girl found her engagement ring hidden in a pancake on Shrove Tuesday.) And I want to be happy for them and I am happy, but at the bottom of my happiness is a voice that just keeps asking "Why not me?" it's hard to stay positive and hopeful and faithful that that things are happening (and not happening) exactly the way they are supposed to happen (and not happen). But I am getting better at it and trying to focus on other things and hoping with all my heart that Future Husband is out there somewhere and he is just as excited to meet me as I am to meet him.

Who Would You Be?

 If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question, 'what do you do'?

 I do lots of things...drink too much caffeine, watch too much Reality TV, get too attached to "characters" on said Reality TV shows. I hang out with a fantastic and adorable bunch of 9 year olds once a week, I babysit, nap, text, eat, craft, walk, yoga...but to me those are all interests and hobbies (and bad habits). My passion is camp, yes it's my job, but really is what I love.

I am incredibly thankful that I am able to work at something I love. And that work rarely feels like work. Maybe that's an exaggeration because I assure you that last summer when the director and I had to get up every hour during the night to do laundry because the dryers broke and we didn't have a laundry attendant yet, felt like work.

And right now when I just got an email that we still haven't found a cook, it looks like a counsellor is going to quit before he starts, another counsellor is MIA, as is the assistant nurse, they were both hired but haven't made any effort to get their contracts signed or reply to e-mails and we're moving to camp in 2 weeks (i.e. 2 hours away from the main office) which makes hiring and other office work difficult.

But it's the kind of chaos I enjoy, and afterwards it makes for great stories (which all of my real life friends are tired of hearing. In university I did one work work term that wasn't camp or working with kids and it was 4 months of what I imagine hell to be like. I worked in the university gym and organized intramurals for students, it was almost 2 years ago now and I still can't talk about it without getting angry and yelling.

Even though I could answer "what do you do?" without referencing my job, it wouldn't be a very accurate or truthful answer. Even when I'm not working I'm reading up on what other camps are doing, searching Pinterest for fun craft ideas or just talking about camp. Camp is a huge part of who I am and it's what I love to do!

Blog Friends...?

I wasn't going to blog today because the topic for the May Challenge I've been doing is favourite blogging friends...and I don't really have any blogging friends. I've got lots of favourite blogs but I'm pretty new to the blogging scene. I've "met" some people who I really hope to become blog friends with I haven't quite achieved that goal. All that being said I like making new friends so you should definitely comment and introduce yourself if you happen to be stopping by! :) 

Friday I got some super exciting mail! Last year was my first summer at a non-faith based camp and I really under estimated just how much I would miss that element of camp. This year I decided to be pro-active and find some sort of daily devotional for me to use. I searched and I searched to find something specifically for camp staff, or even 20-Something girls, just something that had daily readings. Which turned out to be a near impossible task. Finally I came across Character Building Ministries who have a 10 week devotional specifically for camp staff! Factoring in breaks between each session I'm actually at camp for about 14 weeks, but I can make it work and I am super excited about it!

I am also super excited that 2 weeks from today I will be at camp! Enjoying beautiful sunsets like the one below. Or at least making an effort to really take the time to watch and appreciate the sunset a few times a week in the midst of the various camper and staff happenings. 

Food for Thought

Today's Every Day in May Challenge topic is favourite quotes!

I love quotes, there's just something about the perfect words strung together to form something bigger that makes me really happy! 

I have so many favourites, but for the sake of just choosing one I've chosen the one below.

I've always been a really big believer that "God is in the details" and I always make a point when I'm doing children/youth ministry to teach that not only is God BIG, but He is also in all of the little things too. I think this quote does a good job of pointing out all the details and the vastness.

Menu Meltdown

The topic for today's Every Day in May is What makes you uncomfortable? I won't lie a lot of things make me uncomfortable but I'm going to focus on the thing that both annoys me, angers me and makes me uncomfortable! Food. Specifically people judging others for what they eat.

I'm what people consider a 'picky eater', which is fine, I'll be the first to tell you that I am in fact a 'picky eater'. The problem is that when most people hear 'picky eater' they automatically assume I eat nothing but french fries and chicken nuggets. Which is totally false. I do like chicken nuggets, but I also know that they're not the healthiest things going and I don't even eat them once a week, never mind once a day. 

One of my favourite meals is salad made with baby spinach, feta cheese, red onion, sunflower seeds and balsamic vinaigrette and it never fails that when somebody sees me eating something like that they feel the need to comment "Oh, I thought you were a picky eater.".  Its as if the minute I mention something about being picky suddenly everyone watches my eating habits with a magnifying glass and it makes me so uncomfortable. 

Just because there are lots of things I don't like (green peppers, sandwiches, deli meats, casseroles...) there are still lots of things that I do like and I would really rather not discuss everyone of my food choices with you. I don't inquire about your protein needs as a vegetarian/vegan or make fun of you for asking about gluten-free options in a restaurant so I would appreciate if you didn't ask me where I get my vitamins or mock me when I ask for my meal with green peppers. 

Trust Me, I'm An Expert...?

Today's "Blog Every Day in May" Challenge is to educator my reader(s) about something I know a lot about. I think just about the only thing I know a lot about is camp but I'm not sure how my knowledge of soothing homesick campers and living with your co-workers for 3 months without bloodshed is of use to anyone else.

Also, the finale of Big Brother Canada is coming on and I need to focus all my attention on that and not blogging. 

The End.