Ten Reasons Why I LOVE my job

Julie Hartley
Camp Director

My friends back home in Toronto are somewhat mystified by me. Why do I do the job I do? It’s hard. Certainly never nine to five.  In the summer, Craig and I start work just after seven, and rarely finish before 11pm.  We are responsible for a live-in community of almost 200 diverse human beings from all over the world. And we have to work with teenagers… they often ask why we would choose to do that.

The truth is, I love my job. On the very hardest days, when it’s hotter than hot, and there are tons of things to sort out, and barely time for a bathroom break… I love my job. And on those other days, when everything is magical, and camp is like a secret world of unbelievable happiness, and all of us feel we are recreating the real world the way we wish it could be… then I feel on top of the world and exploding with joy.

I could give you a million reasons why I love my job. Here’s just ten:

1. Young people who love the arts are almost always incredible human beings. Sensitive, empathetic, caring, creative, quirky and delightful. I get to spend my summers with hundreds of people just like that. What’s not to like? Forget the cliches about teens being troubled and hard work… the kids we work with are the most incredible people I know…

2. … and we get to watch them grow into even more incredible young adults, week by week and summer after summer. We help them become more confident and assertive, more adaptable and independent. More self aware as their true selves take wing. We help them to know and love themselves and their potential. You don’t face a mid life crisis (“what has my life amounted to?”) when you do a job like that.

3. Where else do you get to start with a blank canvas, and remake the world exactly as it should be – filled with joy, non-judgemental, a celebration of everything wonderful about being alive? That’s the goal we set ourselves here. Take out all the bad stuff that harms people – cliques, bullying, drugs, racism, hatred, too much commercialism, negativism – and replace it with all that is life-affirming, magical and wonderful.

4. Kids grow up too quickly in the world these days. According to a recent UN study, children in Western societies are the most unhappy on the planet – they struggle with more mental health problems, are less free, and experience less of a childhood than they need to be emotionally healthy adults. But not at camp. Here, we see the magic of childhood happen, again and again. We can touch children with wonder. Let them build dens to sing songs in, chase fireflies, spin circles under the clouds, run after a frog, invent fairy names for themselves and explore the world of childhood in whatever ways they can imagine. This matters to me so much. This is something all children should have. And being a camp director, I get to make it happen.

5. There’s nature here! It’s true! Just because we’re not up North doesn’t mean we are bereft of wild things! There is a marsh and 2 ponds here at camp, filled with crayfish, snakes, frogs and even muskrats. Goldfinches flit across the  quad all day. We have a colony of swallows numbering over 170. There are dozens of nests all over camp. We have deer down by the treeline, a red tailed hawk living back by the pool, and herons that come here to fish. We love that we have this… and that we get to share it with kids whose lives are often very urban. Oh – and I’ve travelled all over the world and never seen sunsets as beautiful as the ones we get here.

6. All this, and I haven’t even mentioned the arts! We get to be creative in every possible way here, and to help creative youth to learn, grow and shine as they develop their skills. Here at camp in the past 20 years, we’ve staged literally hundreds of dance and theatre shows, held dozens of film festivals, listened to numerous readings and held more art exhibitions that I can count. We’ve published books, held a public film festival, helped kids get into arts high schools and university arts programs, and seen many, many young people go on to successful careers in the arts.

7. Young people have problems. Many have experienced divorce and death in their lives. They have been bullied, teased or excluded at school. Sometimes made to feel worthless. They struggle with anxiety, depression and fears for the future. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We can’t cure deep-seated struggles, which is something we try to teach our counsellors, but we can be a force for the good. We can listen. Help children become stronger. Make them feel better about themselves. We make a difference, and sometimes barely even know it has happened until years later, an email arrives out of the blue: “you practically saved my life when I was fourteen…”

8. I can’t think of any other job where I’d be exercising every skill I have, to the very limit of what I can do, day after day. Craig and I created Centauri, so in a sense we also created the ideal jobs for ourselves… but then how many people truly get to do that? I am an arts professional, an educator, a youth counsellor, a storyteller, a writer and a trainer of leaders. I get to be all of that here, every single day.

9. Part of running a great camp is hiring an exceptional staff, and then training and supporting them so they can be the best they can be. I love that part of what I get to do.  In staff training we run workshops on crisis management, health and safety, first aid, emotional issues, creating magic, dorm activities, bullying prevention, supporting LD campers, teaching strategies, running great camp activities, and so much more. During the summer, we see young leaders do everything they can to support and help their campers. We see university students run their first teaching sessions, and then support and evaluate them as they learn to become better and better teachers and event planners as the summer goes on.

10. Every moment of every day at camp is meaningful. Every meal is filled with excitement, laughter or magic. Every day in program is a learning experience. Every evening activity and festival is something new with its own challenges and possibilities. Therefore, every day at Centauri we are doing something we have never really done before. There may be a schedule, but there isn’t really a routine. Who knows what the next hour will bring? Who knows what I will learn next, or what magical moment lies around the corner? Who could have predicted, last session, that a creative younger camper would have sued  his counsellors for two Mars Bars, leading to a hilarious mock trial involving half the camp? Or that B3, this session, would stage a takeover of the Program Director bench at flagpole? I love not knowing what creative magic lies around the corner. It’s a feeling that keeps you on your toes and truly alive. And it happens because here we are a community, where every single person can have a positive impact on the outcome of everyone else’s day.

Julie Hartley
Director
Centauri Summer Arts Camp