It has been both a long and and a short summer. The first week sucked alot. As I made clear in my last post, I was way stressed. I feel like I missed my mark with that post. I may have led some of you to think that I felt a certain way, which I most definitely do not. Sure, I was sick. I was tired, I was angry at alot of things. I most definitely don’t wish I wasnt here though.

I love BigStuf. I believe so strongly in the mission of this organization that I pour everything that I have into making sure that what I am responsible for is as close to being excellent as it can be. I know where the kids that come to camp are coming from. I used to be one of them. I want campers at camp 1 to get a video that has just as much of my heart poured into it that the video at camp 10 does. They quality may not be the same, but in the long run, working myself to death is all that I can do that early in the summer. The quality will come throughout the summer, and is beyong my control.

I was told by what seemed like everyone on staff and even some of the adult leaders that the week one video, while falling short of hitting the goal I had set in my eyes, was nothing short of amazing. Expectations for week 1 are low. We are all finding out groove. I was figuring out how things were goign to work for the summer. Like I said before.. camp 1 was a win for sure.

Life is much better now. Im getting more sleep, enjoying my friends more, quality of the videos is getting better and better every week. Not to say that each week is any less stressful than the week before, but I am getting used to it.

What really does it for me is morning five of camp. When my end of the week highlight video is shown right before the campers leave. Watching the campers respond to that little piece of artwork that I had poured everything I had into over the past five days without their knowledge. The large majority of the campers don’t even realize I am working on that video pretty much all day. They don’t realize the amount of effort that goes into a video of that size and quality with such a short turnaround time.

Thats ok though. I like being behind the scenes. Sure, a little recognition every now and then doesnt hurt, but I am perfectly fine with being the man behind the curtain.

Here is a little something I made.

If you haven’t heard, life has been extremely chaotic lately. Camp 1 was one of the most stressful things I have ever experienced. While at the same time trying to adjust to the lack of sleep, train the interns, fight my sickness, and come up with some sort of framework for the end of the week video.

Clearly, I survived. Barely though. The end of the week video didn’t quite get done like it should have. There were a number of issues that contributed to this, all of which made it nearly impossible to be completely prepared for what I had thrown at me that night. I would give you all the details of it, but it would include so much technical jargon that I would probably confuse myself in the process of writing it all out.

All in all though, it was a win for camp 1. There was alot to accomplish that week, and aside from failing to deliver something that I was excited about to the campers, I did get alot of work done, and am happy with the way I managed the week.

Camp aside, I miss Kokomo alot. Its about 90 degrees here right now at about 100% humidity, and to make things worse I haven’t been on the beach once in the 2 weeks that I have been here. Sad day, right?

I don’t know what to post about. I am alive. I am breathing. I am having a good time, but at the same time this is a job and I have an incredible amount of responsibility.

Take care.

One of the greatest joys in my life are those simple little surprises.  The kind of surprises that brighten your day, and are just so monumental that you HAVE to tell someone about it right away.

I had one of these moments last week, and I just thought about it, so I figured I would share it with all of you.

I was at Burger King with my good friend Niko. We were enjoying a delicious lunch in that fine establishment. We both tried the new steakburgers they introduced a few weeks ago. I rather enjoyed it, no lie.

Anyways. I was eating my fries, so I just decided to pick up the fry container (which if you haven’t noticed, was designed by the friendly fry-pod engineers at Burger King to fit right into your cupholder… check the box, its there!) and dump them onto my tray. When I did this, I noticed something out of place on my tray. I had my half eaten steakburger, my drink, my fries, and a rogue onion ring that had caught a ride in the fry-pod. I hadn’t ordered any onion rings, so the fact that there was one on my tray startled me. I looked up to make sure none of the Burger King employees had caught wind of the fact that I had received a little treat with my meal. They hadn’t, so I quickly ate it before they extracted that rogue onion ring from my possession.

My day was brighter after that experience. What brightens your day?