feeling good.

Teenagers are a strange species. One minute they are judging you and the next they are making you feel like the greatest person on earth.

At camp this past week - there were a few of those moments. You know. Unexpected compliments coming from the last person you would expect to think nicely/highly of you. Perhaps this isn't that uncommon - but I'm always surprised when a teenager says something kind to me. Why? I think because I assume they think of me the same way my fellow high schoolers thought. I'm on guard. Thinking, "they're judging me" or "oh, they consider me old and don't care what I think" or "I'm a goon."

There were a few instances this past week that made my life. Literally.

1. One girl asked me to do her hair. What? Where did that come from? How could she ever think that I could do hair? Has she seen my mop? I warned her. Strongly warned her that my hair repertoire only consists of one hairstyle. I call it Toddler. And literally it is the exact hairstyle that I give to my 3 year old every single day. But she insisted. I did her hair. Two pigtails on top that connect to two pigtails in the back. She smiled. HUGE smile. And insisted that she loved it. Fun.ny.
   
2. I led the nature hike...and the plan was to do sensory work, having them journal about each sense and the experience as we walked. Well, it started out fine...and then the rain came. The weather turned cold. Really cold. Towards the end I thought that some of the girl's noses were going to fall off. Each small activity that I had them complete was cut short by their desire to get out of the cold. And journaling? Some attempted. Others gave up. At the end of the walk - most were fleeing towards camp. I was in the back and the last girl came up to me and told me, "That was wonderful." What? Really? Did you just experience what I experienced? Evidently not. And that was a good thing. And again - my life was made and while not all got that experience, one did. And I felt good.
   
3. One girl really likes guns, and is a bit of a tomboy, and brought an airgun (which she slept with under her pillow until I asked her to put it away), and does not ever show emotions, came up to me at the end of camp and said, "I have cried more at this camp than my whole life." And I promise she meant cry as in cathartic good cry. (Not sad, homesick, awful cry.)
   
4. I can now tell the twins apart, by name, and had a great time getting to know them - and they brought me a thank you note and chocolate covered cinnamon bears after it all ended. And I ate them all. And I felt loved.
   
5. The girls put together their own skit - wrote it and everything. And they included a song at the end, which I suggested, and it made it so much fun. And they included the line, "I feel a song coming on" directly before the song. Can't beat that.

I had a wonderful week.