Campers may begin attending camp when they’re seven. They come in as frosh or juniors and you observe them. They’re young. They’re cute. You blink. They’re in upper camp. As a camp staff member, there are few things as satisfying as watching your campers grow older. Every year, you get to see them mature. They eventually become more than campers to you. They become colleagues.

For perennial camp staff members, there is probably no bigger problem. There comes a moment in your camp career in which you realize the children you once mentored are now co-workers. It’s a bittersweet moment. You taught them well. But you still see them as those children you mentored. You want to see them succeed at all costs.  You struggle with whether to treat them as campers or colleagues. They’re your campers after all…except now they’re not.  They’re grown. They’re mentoring the same children you are. You’re both enthusiastic and cautious at this prospect. Has this much time really passed since you started working at camp? They’re good at what they do and you want to take some credit for that but are not entirely sure you’re entitled to do so. Either way, these are your campers, and you’re proud.

You revel in seeing them succeed, even though it is so hard to comprehend them as adults. This is all you ever wanted for them. You watch them with your campers and know that this is what camp tradition is truly about. To see a whole new generation of campers successfully become staff members is more than you could ever have imagined as a measure of success.