What I Did on My Summer Vacation

by Lillian Kivel

Last summer I worked at Waukeela Camp for Girls, the sleepaway camp I had attended as a camper for five years. Since I had taken the previous summer off and thus missed the required training, I did not work as a counselor; instead I worked in Maintenance. I focused on things that most campers barely even notice: a toilet would be clogged; a lunch table would have a concerning wiggle to it; a cabin would have a leak; a skunk would be terrorizing the picnic area. My co-workers, Ralph and Lance, were an unusual pair for a maintenance crew. Both wel over sixty, Ralph was a 6 foot, 4 inch teddy bear with a bad left kneww, while Lance was justy-shy-of-a-foot-shorter gnome with a bad right knee. Over my four weeks on the job I learned to build staircases, screens, and circus stilts; to install banisters, door latches, mirrors, and screens; to paint trim, doors, and screen frames; to use hand saws, power drills, electric staplers, power saws, hammers, and wrenches; and everything there was to know about country plumbing from plunging toilets to cleaning out sink traps to digging up a septic system to installnew floats.

But I learned more than just maintenance skills during this job. Ralph and lance also reminded me to value something different. In my world at home, people often receive praise and recognition for a job well done. And no matter how hard people try not to, they often judge one by look and by labels. Ralph and Lance do repetitive, hard, thankless work, day in and day out. They take pride in their work regardless of how basic it is. Although they appreciate thank you's, they do not expect them. It does not matter how fancy the job is or whether people notice, they simply aim to complete the job and check it off the seemingly endless work order list.

At camp and even outside of it, nothing disturbs them. At home people rarely let a car cut in front of them without a response of some kind. Ralph and Lance never mind. Outgoing and friendly, they value friendship over appearances. At summer's end, I left with something much different from anything I'd imagined beforehand. I had learned skills I never thought I would value, and values I truly appreciated.