Dad

My Dad accepted the position as Camp Caretaker today. He has been doing the job for a month, but finally today, we met with the Board President and they negotiated a contract and he accepted the job year-round. He will be selling his house and moving here. I am very excited about it because it's a great fit for him and also, it will benefit camp so much.

After the meeting, he and I went around camp and made the longest "to do" list I've ever seen, but we were both so excited we were just talking over each other and bouncing around and both of us were getting progressively louder and more excited by the passing minutes. We share a very similar vision of where we want camp to go and it is exciting to have someone with the skills and ambition to make it possible. I never imagined I would work with my dad, but now we are partners and it is the best situation I've ever been in. We work well together and I can depend on him and I really enjoy spending time with him. We've come a long way from the screaming fights in my teenage years.

On Sunday, my dad is leaving for Alaska for the next two weeks. He has gone to Alaska for the past 4 years to mine for gold. He talks about it nonstop and it is his passion. I am excited for him to go (and also to stop talking about going and come back with new stories). What I didn't expect was to be so emotional when he left camp today. We have pretty much been together nonstop for the past month. He's here for everything, and he's the one I vent to most often. He is part of the camp community and all of the staff love him. And now he's going to be gone and I really don't want him to go! I'm going to miss him a lot (and I'm also afraid something is going to break and I will have to fix it myself).

Working at camp has been a roller coaster of surprises. I never expected that my boss would leave, that I would love my staff as much as I do, that I would love being here as much as I do. And I never expected that I would have the opportunity to work with my dad and get so close to him. It's been a really nice surprise and a blessing I will appreciate the rest of my life.