Has it really been 20 years...

I admit more and more often these days I am reminded that time passes quickly and 20 years ago can feel like yesterday. My lovely children delight in reminding me that I'm "old;" needless to say, this doesn't bother me. "Old" is a relevant term and I admit to thinking my mom and dad were old when they were 39.

A few weeks ago my sister and I were going through a box of things from her high school days and we came across several letters I had written to her when I was a camp counselor one summer at Kickapoo Kamp for Girls down in Kerrville. I decided it would be great fun to work at a summer camp, so when the camp job fair came to campus I was the first one to sign up; little did I know how much work it was going to be ~

Following is an excerpt from one of the letters dated July 2, 1991:

Let me just give you a sample of my day:
6:30 Wake up for myself to get ready in order to get 7 little girls ready at 7:15
7:15 Wake up the girls
7:45 Flag raising
8:00 Breakfast
8:30 Clean up cabin (get it ready for inspection) Try getting seven 7 year olds to clean the shower, toilet,   sink, mirror, sweep the floor, line their shoes up, make their beds, put their dirty clothes in a bag and take out the trash in 15 minutes because at
8:45 Go to classes
9:00 to 11:45 Teach classes
12:30 Go to lunch
1:30 I get to take a 30 minute nap while they are at song practice. Yea!
2:00 they wake me up. Not yea!!
2:00 to 3:30 Rest hour! Best part of the day (just kidding)
3:30 Go down for campers to get a Coke
3:45 Classes start up again
5:45 Classes over!
6:30 Supper
7:30 Night activity
9:00 Up to cabin. We usually listen to music and sing and dance. Sounds like that's right up my alley huh?
Anyway, that's my schedule. Don't think I'm griping, I'm just really tired right now. I guess I better go get some sleep. Kiss Mom and Dad for me and give them big hugs! Love, Tina

Now I wouldn't trade that summer for a million bucks; I learned so much as a camp counselor and gained a little independence being on my own so far away from home, but I'm pretty sure if I had known in advance what my summer job was going to be like I would have chosen a different path. Isn't life in general just like that? We grow, we learn and we become the people God wants us to be because of the experiences he puts in our paths, but 9 times out of 10 if we knew what it was going to take to get through those trying times we would chose the easy way.

I just happen to read these letters to K today and noticed the date at the top of one of the letters...July 2, 1991. Twenty years to the day has gone by and in my mind I can still feel the cool summer air on those early mornings. I don't know how we managed to get those 7 year olds to do all the things that had to be done to pass inspection, but somehow we all managed (and survived.) Now I have a little girl of my own who sat listening to me read those letters from a summer so long ago. She has big plans for summer camps in her future the only catch is she wants me to be her camp counselor ~ isn't that sweet? :)

Here's to all those sweet memories of summers past that we all have...