As soon as I walked into that great church I have known and loved, I knew it would be great to help out all these little first graders and meet new people my age after not seeing many people because of COVID-19. Helping to get everything set up before the kids come flying in. The volunteers feel the excitement while preparing for the kids to coming through the doors with their parents. Some were excited about their fun day without their parents, and others were upset to leave their parents. After all the kids signed in, we were all ready for the first day of KSA camp everyone was pumped to be there. The band started playing and all the little kids jumped in the air with joy. After the band played a few songs we were ready to leave for our first field trip. 

Getting ready for our first field trip was like trying to get 150 flying bees back into the carrier. Finally, getting them loaded on the bus and check to ensure no kids were left behind. I suddenly felt a tug on my shirt, a kid asked to draw on my shirt thinking it was fine, so I turned around to let the kid draw. He started drawing after doing that for a bit it started to feel like he was taking his time on this drawing! Turns out many other kids joined in on drawing on my shirt, almost taking up all the time on the bus. Drawing many things like flowers, people, and on my hair… one of them had colored in my hair after we arrived at our destination, we found purple marks in my hair. 

When we get to Hastings Pool. My responsibility was finding a spot for me and my group to stay at, making sure all the kids had sunscreen on, and they checked in with me every couple of hours. When they got approval to go into the pool, all of them ran to the pool and jumped in. By the end of the day, the kids were tired and so were the leaders. Everyone was ready for bed even though it was only three o’clock in the afternoon. 

I was heading towards the car, where my mom was. I started telling her everything that had happened. She noticed that I was exhausted so she got me home making sure I got a good night's sleep to be ready for tomorrow. Starting to fall asleep right away. That day I learned that hanging out with kids all day is very exhausting.  Most of them don't listen which makes me repeat myself and gets exhausting. I got a good night's sleep and was ready for another long exhausting day.

 The next day we went to feed my starving children with a bunch of first graders making everyone wash their hands and not do anything unsanitary. I watched them like a hawk, hoping that nothing would happen. It felt like many of the adults were not watching anything, so we helpers had to do the jobs. That all went downhill fast because one kid had coughed in the box of rice and they had to replace it and he had to rewash his hands. Helping out at summer camps throughout my life has impacted me in many ways. 

I have learned a lot on this trip that having these kids not listening to you is like a headache that never goes away and when you don’t feel like you have control of everyone you kind of shut down and it is just exhausting. I have also learned that having to watch these kids with your life you have a feeling that parents go through. Knowing I acted the same way as these first graders when I was a kid but now being here experiencing this. I feel how my parents felt. I didn’t want to fail so I had to make sure I didn’t lose them or take my eyes off them. If I did, I know they will somehow cause trouble.