ipl-logo

Personal Narrative: My Summer Volunteering At Camp Echoing Hills

1025 Words5 Pages

Imagine a world where sleeping five hours every night, daily freak of nature accidents, feet feeling as if they could fall off from walking on them all day, and even getting unknown bodily fluids splattered all over you, defined the norm. That was my world this summer. I had the privilege of spending two months of my summer volunteering at Camp Echoing Hills, a camp in Ohio for individuals of all ages with disabilities. Reflecting back, it seems as if I experienced and learned more in these two months than in my prior seventeen years of life all together. Each week brought forth new struggles, some I was aware of, and others I had no idea existed; however, despite the obstacles I faced, the blessings I received after each week consumed me. I met hundreds of new faces this summer, some blurry, and some clear, yet one young girl named Alondra will never cease to exist …show more content…

I looked forward to this week of camp all summer, and it had finally arrived. The moment I heard the first overwhelmingly, excited squeal of a camper running through the welcoming gauntlet, I knew this was going to be an incredible week. Once all the campers arrived, we followed the normal routine and brought them down to get acquainted with the cabin and with one another. I was in the middle of running back and forth between two giddy girls, when one of the camp supervisors asked to pull me aside for a moment. A thousand thoughts rushed to my head as I made my way over to the supervisor, sure that I was seconds away from getting yelled at. Soon enough, she spoke. She asked one simple question: if I would be willing to work in a different cabin with a camper named Alondra, who happened to be a wanderer. A wanderer is someone who is always up and moving and is often unable to stay situated in one spot for a long period of time. Unknowing of what I was getting myself into at the time and too in shock to say no, I

Show More
Related

  • Personal Narrative: American Legion Auxiliary Girls State Camp

    392 Words  | 2 Pages

    I'm a cautious person. Before this summer I had never stepped outside of my comfort zone. The longest I had been away from my family was for a week in the fifth grade when my entire class went to camp, and even then I was surrounded by familiar faces and friends. That is why when I was awarded the honor to attend the American Legion Auxiliary Girls' State camp, I was wary of experiencing such a big change. After being dropped off at the MSU dorms on the first day I was left with a HUGE feeling of angst and dread.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Reminiscences Of My Life In Camp, By Susie King Taylor

    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stories from the Civil War often are told from a man's perspective and rarely from a woman's point of view. In 1902, Susie King Taylor wrote her memoir, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops Late 1st S. C. Volunteers, to explain her role in the war as a wife to a soldier, the regiments' laundress, a teacher, and a nurse. Taylor is famously known for being the first black nurse during the Civil War, but her memoir gives historians a closer look at her life and multiple roles during the war. In 1848, Taylor was born into slavery in Savannah, Georgia.

    Read More

  • Farewell To Manzanar By Jeanne Wakatsuki

    811 Words  | 4 Pages

    Twenty-two children--a record figure for my childhood--attended my sixth birthday party” (367). The kids were able to make friends and explore their talents easily because of the available communication within the camp. Rather than focusing on the dreadful parts of it, the youth of the imprisonment camp learned to team up to find joy within the

    Read More

  • Camp Conowingo Research Paper

    1876 Words  | 8 Pages

    Week after week, I continued to grin and bare it until finally, I reached my last week. As I finally sat down at my last meeting of my last day, I listened to our boss talk about all the positive feedback the camp was getting from both parents and campers. The majority of the girls who came had had the time of their lives. In the end, that was just what made all our suffering worthwhile. I sat and looked around at all the familiar faces I had come to know so well in so little time.

    Read More

  • Book Review Of Farewell To Manzanar By Karen Blumenthal

    944 Words  | 4 Pages

    Their living conditions were incredibly poor including overflowing toilets, unfinished quarters, crowds, and lacking meals. People would leave for grueling field work because they hoped it’d be better than the camp. The authors go on to tell that Jeanne loses her family completely and rapidly. Her mother grows cold, her respectable father a drunkard, and her brothers nonchalant and blunt. Many people die in this chaos and we’re truly shown how some crisis break people beyond recovery, for example ‘Papa’ her honest, hard-working father

    Read More

  • My Accomplishment Of My Eagle Scout Service Project

    485 Words  | 2 Pages

    Success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. I have been involved with many activities, such as: sports teams, volunteering in my church, and Boy Scouts of America. An accomplishment I experienced and has created a large impact on my life was completing my Eagle Scout Service Project. I have been actively involved with Boy Scouts and the Scouting Program once I turned six. After spending about two-thirds of my life with scouting, I cannot picture my life without it.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: Life At The Boy Scout High Adventure

    649 Words  | 3 Pages

    While many consider the 50-mile backpacking trek at the Boy Scout High Adventure Philmont Ranch 10,000 feet above sea level an already excruciating journey, my experience with the trek revealed the perfect metaphor: Life is just one big blister. Before this trip, I dedicated my life towards improving the mind rather than the body, embracing my talents in mathematics and science and envisioning myself as a teacher of academia rather than an athlete. With this background and as the youngest person in the expedition, my crewmembers often expressed their concerns: “Did you lace your boots properly? Do you have enough food? Are you warm enough?”

    Read More

  • Eco 372 Week 2 Individual Assignment

    494 Words  | 2 Pages

    A few months ago, I began an internship with the East Villagers Organization. East Villagers is a non-profit organization that focuses primarily on funding children with congenital heart disease. As an intern, I was required to translate documents from Mandarin to English since the organization focused its projects in Eastern China. The first assignment given to me was a fourteen pages brochure that I had to translate within two weeks. Since this was one of the first times I was given such an enormous task within such a small time span, I panicked.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Eagle Scout Project

    607 Words  | 3 Pages

    The transition from childhood to adulthood occurs when an individual is able to recognize the impact he or she can leave upon their community, gaining life skills doing so. An accomplishment that marked my transition from childhood to adulthood, would be best demonstrated by the process and completion of a leadership responsibility when I performed my Eagle Scout Project. I joined the scouting program when I was very young, and have been very active since ever. Becoming an Eagle Scout has many challenges that a young Boy Scout must undertake, including the completion of a community-based project, which is an important step in obtaining this notable rank. The Eagle Scout Project is designed for the scout to learn different leadership responsibilities.

    Read More

  • The Benefits Of Year-Round School

    508 Words  | 3 Pages

    Visualize the scene of an annual first day of summer barbecue, imagine the scent of wet grass and the sense of belonging felt upon gazing at people’s smiling visages. Now visualize summer camp, finally, after an entire year, seeing the friends that have been made over the years and hugging those friends as the rejoicing commences. Now imagine sitting crunched up in a tiny school desk listening to your algebra teacher drone on about quadratics and systems of inequalities. Day. After day.

    Read More

  • The Luck Of Roaring Camp Analysis Essay

    775 Words  | 4 Pages

    At the beginning of the story, the camp is introduced as a rude, ruthless, and lawless place where every man only thinks about himself. All the characters are clichés, stereotypes of humanity; they are brutes, whose attention would not be attracted even by a fight to death, as it was so ordinary. In the first paragraph

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: Boy Scouts

    222 Words  | 1 Pages

    The few rules Boy Scouts are told right before going to the winter camp called Klondike are, first, constantly be drinking a ton of water. The second rule is to eat two to three times more food than you would consider at home. And finally, third, make sure not either get too cold nor wear too much, because then you will overheat. My second year of attending Klondike, I was given the responsibility of being Senor Patrol Leader for the troop, the highest leadership position an adolescent can earn. Though temporarily SPL for just this campout, I dealt with it as a huge opportunity to become a better leader.

    Read More

  • A Personal Narrative Essay: My Most Rewarding Volunteer Experience

    921 Words  | 4 Pages

    What is life’s most extraordinary pleasure? For many, money, power, and/or fame come to mind, and the idea of helping others does not register. It seems for every person eager to help, there are millions ready to hurt or disregard those in need. Nevertheless, the world is not beyond salvation; there are numerous individuals willing to give their time and labor to transform the world into a better place for all. These devoted people are volunteers, and they believe life’s most extraordinary pleasure is the joy of helping others.

    Read More

  • Holocaust Experience Essay

    504 Words  | 3 Pages

    Here thousands of people were sectioned off. Those who were able to work were sent to one line. The others, who the guards deemed unable to work, were sent to the other line. They had just been sent to their deaths. The guide spoke of the process taken at this point in the camp.

    Read More

  • The Beach-Personal Narrative

    846 Words  | 4 Pages

    The fall breeze kissed my face as I unzipped my tent flap. I smiled faintly as I closed my eyes and inhaled the smoky campfire air. This was the first camping trip I could remember, and every second had been beautiful. I was the vulnerable age of only 6, and leaned on my parents every moment I could. Tonight was no different, and I held on tightly to my father’s hand while the rest of the camp group started walking.

    Read More

More about Personal Narrative: My Summer Volunteering At Camp Echoing Hills

Open Document