Afraid to fail

at camp we are always afraid of failure. In a normal job one can lose a paper, miss a deadline and someone might yell at you, but an easy going person can always see that what was lost wasn't that important, maybe the corporation you work for didn't make as much money this year, maybe your paycheck is slightly lighter this month, at the worst maybe you lose your job. At those might be awful, but the fear of failure is so palpable here. A person who fails here doesn't just fail themselves, they don't just lose their own self, any failure here can link back to every other person on staff, and ever child you work with. We live in a culture here at camp where we all live and work 24 hours a day together. We eat together, we sleep together, we love and hate each other, but we are all fundamentally connected, not like in an office where you can always go home at the end of the day to your own room, watch tv, live your own life. your friends are your co-workers. Your room mates cook your food, teach your kids, and share your burdens. The love that we have for each other here is strong, and the fact that when you fail you foist more weight on all the people around you that you care for so much people break down. people will work their hearts out till they pop. Camp is a place where failure isn't an option, and where failure is inevitable. It's no wonder after a week or three people can't take it. People quite, are fired, get too sick to continue. When someone gets a cold and doesn't have the energy to hike 5 miles that day like they'd planned there's a good chance they'll try anyway, and if they still can't they'll fall crying at their co-workers feet in agony. The pain of failing the people you love here is much worse than the sickness. We love our counselors, and we love our campers. Every summer we come here to work at a job that we give our life and health for. We do it for very little money, and we come back as long as we can.