impact

life is pretty funny. you never know who you are going to see again and what impact you have on someone's life.  as a teacher and someone who has worked at multiple summer camps and leadership development programs for the last 10 years i don't know what the impact i have made on thousands of lives. when i wrote that statement i wanted to say hundreds, but then when i thought about all the different places i've worked and did some math i was honestly shocked at the number. in almost all of my jobs i've taught, coached, camp counseled, tutored or somehow worked with kids or teens and that is what i love doing. i'v had two jobs where i wasn't doing one of those things - bussing tables in high school and the office job in ireland.

i think back to the people who've inspired me for the things i've done - my camp counselors, my teachers who inspired me and coaches. so what got me thinking about this was i had an interview on monday and this person had worked on and off with the company for the last decade and when i mentioned that i was an alum of the program he asked when and so i told him fall 2002. and crazily enough that was his first time working the program and we laughed about the snowstorm that hit midway through the session and he asked if i remembered my advisor and i said of course and said her name. he remembered her and was pretty sure she was still working with the company. so of course i wanted to figure it out. so last week we had a big workshop and a bunch of different programs were together for it and we were in a small group and there was a woman in mine who i felt like i'd met before but couldn't place her. and that kinda annoys me because i'm usually pretty good with that kinda thing. so yesterday we had a summer kickoff thing with all the programs and we had to do a find so many people to answer questions and we happened to be near each other and when she said hi and her name i was like holy shit - that is how i know you. you were my advisor when i was in hs. so i told her and it was pretty funny!

but that reminded me of all the memories i made in high school when i went to this program and how great of an experience it was and when i first started working conferences in summer 2009 i molded my expectations of an advisor off of the experience i had and my advisor because she provided such a great experience and it made me later on in life think about working these conferences. and here i am.

so i know i've made an impact on at least one of my campers, students or scholars lives and while i will probably never know what exactly that impact was it inspires me everyday and reminds me of how awesome my jobs are.