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I once had to explain that I was not a teacher, but still had kids/students because I referred to campers as students.
And then I was told they weren't students. but they are! Just different, FUN students in a different, FUN school!

oh man, I love calling them my kids! I have had hundreds of kids over the years and some of them are too old to be my biological kids! Actually, basically all of them are too old to be mine biologically! I suppose that the 6-8 year olds could technically be mine, but I would have had to be like 14 when I had them! My friend has a 3 year old daughter and my friend is less than a month older than me. It is weird to think that I could technically have a 3 year old right now.

when you put a picture of one of your groups up in your dorm room and still remember their names, 3 years later.

You know your a counsellor when you sit in dentists waiting rooms reading books with titles "Roughing it easy at girls camp"

I call my campers "my kids" even though I dont have kids yet

i call me cubs my kids ,peiople give you strabnge looks when your on a bus surround by 7/9 year olds goign to school in the ,morning cus you offerd to drop them off as a favour and then the otehr moms see you on the bus and ask you to drop there off too

None of my brownies parents ask me to do that - but I think if there was a genuine reason I would if they asked me!

when someone mentions that a friend of theirs has a daisy tattoo on their toe and everyone comments on the camp-ness of it, without fail or needed explanation! No one mentioned that the tattoo was from a camp song asn we just started conversing about it, knowing that we all got it!

That is so true!

When you are at a guide training weekend and you get confused that people are calling you Anna not Smudge - cos the last meeting of that kind you were at was a GS and everyone called you Smudge!

when you mention you are working at camp and people think instanly of Bill Murray and Meatballs

When you eat and think that a meal is not a meal without annoucements or grace

when you come on here cos you cant sleep and are hoping that someone will be about!

when you know that camp is a lifestyle and not a job

when you think about camp at least 25 times a day

when you are at school, you look for the counselors lounge

when you are disappointed that you can not major in camp

when you are disappointed a major in Recreation doesnt have many or no classes that are directly related to camp ( ie camp administration, activity planning for camp and such)

When you go to a guide training weekend and get really confused when call you by your given name cos the last time you were at something similar it was run by the GS council you work for and since several of the people there also worked with you just go by Smudge

When you know your camp and the town your camp is located better then the town where you live

When the only reason you've got a facebook account is so you can make sure the other internationals have all their questions answered!

When you join Facebook so you can join as many camp related groups as possible

You add your camp as one of your friends on Facebook/Myspace

When your camp director/camp diorector's kid- whos a staff is your friend on fb

You know you are a CRAZY counselor when you start assembling your own personal staff manual and handbook because it will be WAY MORE USEFUL than your CD's... including write ups of how to do all your favourite activities (even if you know how they go already), favourite and most helpful articles from camping magazine, your favourite camp professional (Ditterized, anyone?), or other websites, and you hand-written somgbook and map of camp with all kinds of notes and directions on it.

And you know that should some accident befall you, you are confident that whomever takes your place will do well if they find this Golden Notebook.
And your CD resents you for it.

Hehe! I know Bob Ditter - at one point I had an article by him (and have seen the video several times) but a friend borrowed it to copy and never returned it - it made me very sad! You manual sounds fantastic stormy!

I always take my own resources to camp! Limited by the fact that I have to fly camp though!

When you have many new ideas for your activity

When you have many songs to sign for general use, grace

When you have enough skits ideas for each cabin to use

When you are considered the king of ideas for new games

When you have a whole book of ideas for camp

I have a lot of nature activity sources going to camp (as I am the enviro ed person) but I figured - if I am taking this much, I may as well take more "camp" appropriate resources and make them available to staff too.

I'd share my finds with my CD, but she gets very possessive over her job/what she does, and I don't want her to think I'm trying to one-up her.
I mean, I DO want her job one day. Just not for a long time.

For me, I just want to have alot of ideas for the cabin I am going to live in, heck I found some camp stories that involve Nature for the younger campers so I may use that for the younger campers for their campfire.

We trade off every week (session) with what unit we are living in, what counselors we work with, and what age group and programs we are doing; so we need to be very versatile.

It's a blessing and a curse.

I know what you mean. Since I am the Nature coordinator and considered Upper Staff, I could do an Taps program with the younger campers before they go to bed if I have an easy activity to do which I could read some Nature related stories for them

Oh and when you can sing, without embarrasement, over 300 songs about hippos, rabbits, coneheaded aliens and herding ducks!

When you know numerous Camp fire stories or stories to tell your campers during Taps

When you know about 75 camp songs off the top of your head