I’m in Huntsville this week for a conference. I’m staying just a few minutes walk from my favorite job ever–Summer Counselor at Space Camp!
Below is a photo of the “Space Habitat,” i.e., the camp dorms. My counselor room was the bubble window on the lower left.
Ke4roh, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
I would wake up every day at about 11 AM (I worked the second shift). I’d meet the other Level I counselors for our morning debrief. Then, we’d off of to the cafeteria to meet our teams.
The morning counselors (first shift) would be there and we’d have a hand-over report about which kids to encourage, which kids to watch out for, and which ones might be a bit homesick.
Then for the next 10 to 12 hours, I’d lead about 20 campers around the facilities teaching them about space history, shepherding them rides and apparatuses, cleaning up their puke, and helping them to have fun!
It was a great job. My most favorite job ever!
Unlike most camps, the cool kids at Space Camp were the “brainy” ones who knew everything about space and science and other geeky details. These kids didn’t fit in a football camp, hiking camp, or other such things.
These kids were my kind of kids! I could connect with them, and I enjoyed inspiring them to do great things.
Too bad that Space Camp only paid a little above minimum wage. Otherwise, I would have made it a career!