Volunteering at Fort Whyte

For about three summers, I’d been having this new thing going. I went
to the Fort Whyte summer camp, and rather enjoyed it. It was a great
opportunity to be out in nature (which I most for sure love), play
awesome games (capture the flag, etc.) and just have a great time.
For the most part, I enjoyed it, from swimming to walking around the
interpretive center, it was a worthwhile experience.

The logical step after being a camper, was to volunteer as a
counsellor. A lot of the kids do it, resulting in overflowing
volunteers, which is so awesome, and the reason for that, is one of
the many purposes of this reflection. The base reasons were that I
was becoming increasingly aware how boring summers are without a
basic structure. My mom was a heavy influence in this because she
would probably have to deal with the boredom, a win-win situation here.

Nothing big, it’s volunteering, a lot of kids do it some may think.
But I found something special in it. I found it challenging the whole
way through, which is usually the first sign that something is worth
doing. One of the first things I talked about to keep me going was
the idea that I’m serving these kids. To elaborate, I’m saying that
to volunteer like this is showing that you’re not so selfish that you
can’t live for somebody else for a while. It’s a very challenging
thing to do, but I liked the unselfish thought of serving other
people. This is also related to how I learned to deal with my
emotions a bit more during the summer, realizing that they’re not a
terribly interesting thing to pay attention to. They’re related with
the thought that serving others is paying attention to the people
around you, not drowning in your own filth. So in a way, the summer
carried the theme of living through my emotions.

Another great thing about it, was that it occupied the inhumanly long
summer. Sure it’s great to have a break, but for most people it
leaves a long area of space with no structure, and a lot of people
have trouble with that. So volunteering was definitely the highlight
of my summer, considering I was operating partly of the motive of
service. It was a real opportunity to think about all of this stuff,
testing the areas of me which probably needed testing and seeing
myself in a new light, since I’d never done anything like this,
volunteering with a conscious commitment.

An interesting thing this job brought about was dealing with the
kids. Sometimes they were annoying little talking machines (when I
was feeling a bit more selfish), or a window to a less-tethered view
on life (when I was in the better mindframe). Some examples that
touched me were, the most notable being this boy and his dreams. I’d
ask him if he had had any dreams, just for some conversation, and
he’d go on and on about his abundant dreams (and he pointed out that
he hadn’t even mentioned his daydreams). They were really interesting
and it was really great to hear the dreams, very freeing because I
was personally interested in it. At the end of the week I suggested
to his mom to enroll him in an MTYP course. After that I walked away
bursting with joy, because I’d extended myself to the future benefit
of this kid, that was definitely one of the highlights.

Things like that kept the weeks going, especially another going-on
with my last week of kids, the younger group - Rabbit Rangers. Every
day my group of kids would be asking me when we were going to do the
mission during the day. I’d respond admiring there anticipation, and
at the end of the day we’d go on an imaginary mission (find the
generator and spy around... sneaky stuff), it helped everyone get
through the week, and it was great to get them excited for something
during the day.

It was also a great thing to do with my friend Trevor. It really
helped him as-well, he really loved it, which is surprising since
he’s sort of introverted. It was so awesome seeing him talking
excitingly to the kids, and it most for sure helped our friendship,
relating in an indirect context, and being able to talk to each-other
at the end of the day about it.

I’m definitely doing it again next year, if not hopefully along with
some other volunteering jobs.