Waterfront director is a super tight job.

I came to a lovely realization today. I love my job. Let me paint you a picture of my day.

I woke up. I spoke with Jesus. I went to staff meeting. Admittedly I had to make several phone calls to the Aquatic Center. No big deal.

After staff meeting I went and got my board shorts on and proceeded to play with water smorg. The water was deathly cold. I managed to trick some campers to jump into the water just like I did. Little did they know how cold it would be after they got out. Muahahah! No, but really…it was cold out of the water in the wind.

After I played in the water, I then went kayaking around the island. Because as a waterfront director who has highly capable lifeguards I am able to do things like that. My friend Tyrell came with me. We kayaked directly up the channel into the marauding waves. They crashed against the bow of my kayak like…well…waves. It was a great opportunity to have some time to spend with Ty.

I then put on my “party pants”. The “party pants” are my oldest pair of carhartt jeans. I have worn them for an entire summer of working 40 hours a week outside, an entire summer as a camp counselor on every single overnight, and at every possible occasion where they might get dirty. They have paint stains, dirt stains, rips, and in general are an awesome pair of pants. My mom hates them. I thought she threw them out once. I got really anxious and angry in my room until I found them. It was close.

Anyhow, I put my pants on so I could go play paintball with one of my campers from last year. He’s a great kid. I almost wish I was a counselor again so I could have hung out with him all week. As it was, I just shot paintballs at other kids with him. Today we crept through the woods in an effort to exterminate the evil red team. It was mostly a stalemate. I lit up a couple campers in highly satisfying sneak-up style.

I then ate lunch. After lunch I made sweet awards for my lifeguards. One of the awards was clearly better than the other ones, but in all honesty…My creativity had peaked at that point, so she’s just lucky. Hopefully the other lifeguards don’t feel let down. After award time I proceeded to take a shower and brush my teeth for the first time today. Clean aren’t I?

So as you can see I have a pretty great job that allows me to do so much cool stuff.

In other news I was the speaker at center stage last night. It was guys night it. So just the dudes. I told a story about how Jesus kept hurting me to get my attention so He could tell me that His love made me valuable, not how strong I am or how good I look without my shirt on (I had it off for most of the talk). The kids seemed to love it and staff members told me how good of a job I did. I suppose Jesus used me to do His work. Neato. I was also somewhat frustrated because I really enjoyed speaking. That’s one more step closer to me having to be a pastor. Touche Lord. Touche.

I’ve been feeling lonely lately and I realized something. If I want intimacy on the relational level where people know what’s going on…I have to let them see. If I keep the happy face on, they don’t catch much and don’t ask me about my state of mind. However, It’s difficult for me to let the guard down. I don’t like being hurt. The more I let the guard down, the more hurt I may get. Some risks have to be taken in life though, especially if you want to live in real community with people.

Staff break is coming up this weekend. We get to enjoy lots of rest. I hope that the relationship sort of drama leaves me alone. The theme for break is Homecoming so we “had” to get dates. I was rather bitter this week after I got shut down a couple times.  No matter how much I tried to be positive about it…I wasn’t. So I enter the restful time with a bit of hesitation. I’m pleased to eat food and rest and read, but I’d really like to do so without remembering high school and the reasons I mostly hated it.

We’re doing skits tonight. My friend Robb and I are doing some great skits. You should be excited.