First of Lasts

The end of this week starts the first of many last. I finished up Vacation Day Camp today. I wasn't very involved with the camp this week. I used the time to get caught up on interviews and staff hiring.

If I could give advice to all the young teenagers out their about interview skills, it would be: SPEAK NORMAL.

It is almost painful talking to teenagers on the phone. I can only hope that they do talk like that with each other. I am not a big phone person. I prefer face to face conversations as much as possible. When hiring staff, LITs, and CITs, it has to be a phone interview.

Today I interviewed a young man that was pretty animated and with some less than stellar answers to questions. According to him, he is already a leader and he just wants others to look at him as if he were a leader. In some ways he is a perfect candidate for the program. In other ways, it may not be a good idea. He sounded bored and I am sure he stopped listening after awhile. I am not saying that I am the best interviewer in the world but at least have a conversation, small talk, or something. If we were staying open I would look for possible LITs and CITs during summer and actively seek them out for next summer. I have worked with some of the campers and I know that they are anything but boring.

Moving on...
I find that I haven't been asking myself:
"What was good today?"
"What made you smile today?"

I find that everyday working with kids you will walk away with a smile. The smile could be because they just said the funniest thing ever. More often than not, it is because you just walked away with a really good story to tell other. The latter usually takes longer and at the time is not the most fun to be had by anyone. I like both. Both cases reminded me that working with kids is fun on so many levels.

My Sweetie was away for awhile. I am really glad she is home.

Peace