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  • #54999
    johnn
    Participant

    I am 21 and currently failing my university degree (IT) because I hate it and it makes me miserable. I thought I was happy with the way everything went, until the summer after my first year at university. That summer and summer after that I went to USA to work at a summer camp. I loved the job, I enjoyed working with the kids coaching them kayaking, swimming, water skiing, climbing, building camp-fires, spending nights around camp-fire with kids and other staff, meeting new people, making unforgeable memories and experiences and knowing I did something for the kids that summer that they will remember and hopefully impact their lives in the future. It was the hardest but most rewarding job I had so far, hell I wouldn’t even call it a job if my expenses were covered I would do it for free.

    That summer job opened my eyes to what actually matters to me in life and what makes me happy. Screw my degree, screw well payed jobs and the “respect” everyone talks about that you get with it… None of that is going to make me as happy as the last two summers did. But since I live in the UK summer camps don’t really exist here. Also without being student I don’t think I can actually get visa to go work at camps in the future.
    My biggest dilemma is how can I make this into something more than just amazing summer. Even if I could get visa to go again, I will most likely be stuck in dead end job for the 10 other months, and no matter what job I get they wont just let me go to USA for 2 months and I wont make living out of it as it costs me more to get there than I got payed. Realistically speaking I wont make living out of it.
    I answered most of the questions above, they all lead towards the summer camp. Its like the one place where I was truly happy which makes me really really worried and scared I wont be happy again until I go back.

    #55005
    The Ruminant
    Participant

    Hello there!

    If your interests lie in working with children and outdoor activities, then a summer camp isn’t the only option and United States isn’t the only country to have summer camps (or other camps). Within EU you can travel and work without special permits. I don’t know if people from UK have easier access to commonwealth countries. There are different kinds of camps around the world in different climates, and when it’s winter in the northern hemisphere, it’s summer in the southern hemisphere.

    If you’ve found something that truly makes you happy, then that is just wonderful! Most of us aren’t that lucky. I still would urge you to get your degree and obtain other beneficial skills. None of the knowledge is wasted, and it might all come in handy if some day you want to create a camp of your own. You have the motivation right there, but now you just need to make a connection with what you are doing right now and how it will benefit you in your pursuit. I’m not talking about just getting a degree so that you could get access to a country. I’m saying that when you’re studying something, try to put it in the context of if you were running a summer camp for children. If you would ever become an entrepreneur, you would need all the possible skills you can get, because you’d need to do and know everything 🙂 Even if you would not want to have your own camp some day, you might need to step up and help with something, and at that time, it would be good to have the knowledge.

    What you could also do is send e-mails to some of the camps. Ask what kind of personnel they really need. What sort of specialization would they want to see?

    Also, if you want to make an impact in children’s lives, there are other options than teaching outdoor activities. You can teach a lot more and see the progress. If you want to have special memories and make an impact, then seek some of the organizations that do work in Africa. Having a degree in UK will give you something that can be precious in certain places in the world: having knowledge. But I digress…

    Point is though that there is more to summer camps than just that one aspect. They need to be managed just like any other venture, and they need people with skills. If I understood you correctly and you are studying IT, then that’s the one skill that will make you desired almost anywhere (speaking from experience). You’d just need to make sure that IT wouldn’t be the only thing that you did! 🙂

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