I Am A Camp Counselor

My best friend Leah Nepomuceno is one of the strongest people I know, especially when it comes to family. Family to her is everything and she has done all she can to try and keep hers together as a whole. We were in sixth grade swinging on the swings outside at recess, whispering and giggling about our usual gossip when she received news from one of our teachers that we knew was serious by the look on her face and fear in her voice. She came up to us and told her she needed to go the office and that she was being dismissed, she gave me permission to walk with her inside. On the short but long felt walk inside Leah's heart was pounding, her hands were sweating, and her eyes were slowly filling with tears. Her mom was

I was in school when I got a news flash about a shooting near a bus stop. At lunchtime, I opened up the story and it read, “Teen killed on way to lake park bus stop”. However, it wasn’t the headline that hit me but rather the first line of the article which mentioned that a Palm Beach Gardens high school teen, Claverle Joseph, was the one that was killed on his way to the bus stop. I didn’t know how to react. I just froze; I couldn’t process the emotions that were swirling through my mind. This was the first time in my life that I dealt with a death that was personal to me. My Grandparents had died when I was too young to recount any experiences with them. It was difficult to comprehend that I would never see a kid that I had gotten to know so well over the last three years ever again. My family and I did what we could for his family in there grieving state and donated to help raise money for his funeral. Although his death came as a surprise, I knew there was something wrong before the incident occurred because he did not come out for the travel team that last year. This was strange because he truly loved the team and playing basketball. Following my suspicion, a couple days after his death, I found out that there had been a series of incidents, including a shooting one week before his death in which he had been shot in the hand. His family stated for the news that they had been living in fear of their son’s life for a while. I wish I could have done more for him because whether he knew it or not he did so much for my growth as a person on and off the court. His life and this experience taught me to truly value one’s own life and to never take anything for granted because it could all be erased in an instant. His death helped me understand that I need to be as compassionate and empathetic for everyone I meet because you will never comprehend what adversities and difficulties they face in their

I want to work at camp because I would like to give back. I have attended MFU camp for the past 11 years and I want to give back to MFU and the experience that I had during my years at camp. I would like to make an impact on kids’ lives and help create amazing memories, just like how previous councilors have done for me. I want to help change kids’ lives and give them a week that they will not forget.

He felt like his heart just fell out of his body and shattered into millions of pieces because maybe that was the last time he was going to see his mother. The fact that it was barely the beginning of summer ,so basically he lived without his mother for 2 months. Him ,and his older brother had to step up and take care of their younger sisters. Meanwhile his father would worked 11 hours or even up to 13 hours for five days a week and only getting paid $375 dollars per week. From seven in the morning all the way till six he would work. Everyday he comes home tired and sore from work. He works in construction; he basically puts the roofing on the houses which can be really exhausting. With the summer heat reaching up to hundred degrees everyday. They all faced adversity ,but all they could do was pray for their mother and begging for her to come back home safe. This occurred a couple years ago ,but Jose was still young and he couldn’t really understand what was going on. All he would see his older brother crying with my father ,and all i could do was to make sure my younger sisters wouldn’t see them. Eventually on August 13, 2016, one morning as Jose woke up, a black truck pulled up to his house and once the back door opened, the moment he saw his mother he bursted out of tears of

Karly Segrave was a fifteen year old girl when Hurricane Katrina Hit. Her mother worked at St. Tammany Parish Hospital, so when it was time to evacuate she stuffed everything she could into a backpack and went on her way. Most of the employees at the hospital brought their familys with them, so space was limited. Karly slept under her mothers cubical for three weeks. “At first it was fun,” she watched movies, played games, and had tons of people to talk to. Then days turned into weeks and the hospital begun to run low on food. She began to realize that it wasn’t all fun and games.

No one was prepared for this: The storms were meant to come next month, and yet it seems that God has played a trick on us, leaving us entirely at his mercy. Everyone here is trying to be as close together as possible to share any ounce of heat that can be sustained. The shelters we built were a feeble attempt at any proper haven that would keep the chill out, yet even the smallest gap in the shelters made the cold barge in, leaving us all as a shivering cluster in the snow. Whilst trying to find more wood to build the shelters, my leg skid across the raw ice that coated some areas of the ground, and left me with a gaping tear in both of my knees, stinging with an insufferable ache when the cool wind whips my bare skin. Yet that seems to be the least of my concerns as I observe William, my little brother. He has grown weary and feeble, his skin looking paler with each passing day. I tried to tell father, but he was so busy trying to plan what to do with the other men that I did not manage to get him away for a quiet moment. I gave William my additional quilt, but he barely clings on to it, as if he has lost all strength in his body. He doesn’t even take any food into his system, even as I try to coerce him into eating, and by the time we are meant to settle in for a dark night of an attempt to sleep, someone has already eaten

This past summer, I worked as a Swim Instructor at The Preserve with the company, Fit Fins. The job was probably the best job a teenager could ever ask for. I got to teach kids ages sixteen months to twelve years old how to swim, I got to be in the pool every day for hours, I could go in the hot tub on my breaks, and I got super tan. There was really only one downside to this job; it was a summer job. By summer job, I mean it only lasts from June to late August. This could also be a plus side, since I get fall, winter, and spring off; however, this means I'm out of a job for nine months. So now my current job is at Old Navy. I decided to get another seasonal job because I figured I needed to pay for things like my Ramen Noodle addiction or the Christmas season.

The night of December 9, 2011 was easily one of the worst of my life. It all started before I woke. At around 2:30 in the morning, my grandfather (Pepaw), who resided in Keyser, West Virginia, had fallen very ill. My step grandmother called my father to let him know that his father needed emergency surgery and asked him to travel to Keyser Hospital as soon as possible. After the first surgery was completed the doctors at the the Hospital determined that he needed an additional emergency surgery that they were not equipped to preform. At 5:30 A.M. he was Medevaced to Morgantown, West Virginia for the next surgery. After he arrived, the Morgantown Physicians assessed his vitals, and in consultation with the Keysers doctors, they determined that Pepaw was not strong enough to undergo the second

over night Adrian flew to Des Moines, got into the airport's terminal around half an hour before midnight and waited for his morning connecting flight. Him and Ronela were exchanging text messages throughout the night. During the wee hours of the morning, it seemed to him like everyone had left the place, the place was deserted, a ghost town where my son (16 years old) was left completely alone in the terminal..when the temperature dropped..., "I was very cold, I put on everything I had, my sweater and jacket, hat and still was very cold"said Adrian. At a time a lonely janitor passed by and " I tried to talk to him" He said to me through the phone "where is everybody?" Adrian asked him, "I don't know" was his only answer. It's hard to believe, as a father it brakes my heart, no one cared, no one looked around to see a 16 years old boy left there by himself, everybody went home or in their own cocoon... I would expect in a situation like that, someone should have looked around, ask about his whereabouts, put him in a lounge or a smaller room with some other people. How would you feel having someone close to you completely worried, isolated and scared... not to mention this boy is my son. I was heart broken and very sad...

I have always loved working with children. My first job was at Ellison Youth Inc. summer camp and I was a counselor. I interacted with campers between the ages of six through ten. Based on the managers observed she offered me a position during the school year with the after school program. Any environment I’m in I always seem to gravitate towards children and this is when I learned that working with children was my passion. Prior to this time I had no idea this was my passion I knew I just knew I enjoyed working with kids. There was always a sense of self-gratification. So when I found out I was pregnant I was in for a treat.

My dad was what you’d call a “big, tough guy”. He never cried, and very seldom did he show much emotion at all. He took a minute to compose himself and got straight to the point. He told us that my cousin Mackenzie, my best friend ever since I was a baby, had been killed. She was at a different campground in Spooner, Wisconsin, when the storm broke off the top of a tree. Mackenzie was playing on a playground, just a little girl on the swings on what started out as just a normal Friday, when she heard the crack of that tree and started running. It fell on top of her and killed her on impact. The doctors said the hit cracked her skull and she died

On Feb. 24, 2017, I lost Sean, and my wife,Sandra, in a car crash. It was a dark, rainy evening when the accident happened. Sandra had called to let me know that she had gotten off work early and said she could pick up our son, Sean, from soccer practice. I insisted on picking him up, but Sandra said it would be better if I were to stay with our sixteen month old daughter, Summer. After thirty minutes, I called them. Sandra answered the phone to tell me that she picked up Sean, but all of a sudden, I heard a crash, and then the call went silent. “Sandra?” I said quietly, and there was no reply. I yelled “Sandra?!” Yet, there was no reply, until I heard the siren of a fire truck. Suddenly, my entire world started collapsing.

You never know when something might happen. An ordinary day can turn into a tragedy. November 8, 2016, was that kind of day. My dad was deer hunting so that afternoon it was just me and my mom.I was getting ready for gymnastics practice when my mom got a call. The caller ID read “Community Memorial”. I could hear the fear in my mom's voice as she picked up the phone. “H-hello?” she said. I waited nervously as my mom spoke to the hospital. Five minutes later she hung up the phone. “Your dad fell 13 feet out of his tree stand while he was hunting. He called 9-1-1 and is at Community Memorial right now” my mom said. At that point I didn’t know how serious the injuries were. “Is he ok?” I asked.

This job also gives me a chance to impact the lives of the campers I am working with. I am doing this by helping them have the experiences and memories every child deserves. They are learning social behaviors and how to interact and build relationships. This camp gives these kids a sense of normalcy and fun. I have built relationships with children who had started off not liking me but by the end of a week of camp they are comfortable and have fun with me. They know they will always have a place at Camp Munroe and I love being a part of that experience for

I was so excited to be going back to Florida at Christmas it is beautiful there at that time of year, and this time my aunt and her family were coming with us. It had been so long since we had been to Florida. We used to go nearly every year but now that moneys gotten a bit tighter we don’t go as often as we used to. During the times we’ve been in Florida there has been a few major attacks on different places around the world. The first time I had ever went to Florida was just a few months after I was born and while we were there two planes crashed into the twins towers and killed thousands of people in New York. I had also just flown out to Florida a few days before the Glasgow airport attack but when we went this time we didn’t expect that