Inspired

On Tuesday, the camping association group I am education chair of brought a big name speaker to lead a day-long training. In the camping community, he is a ROCK STAR.

I am a terrible driver. I get lost often (even going to places I've been a million times). My car smells like a wet bulldog. So why I was the person to pick him up and drive him an hour and a half to the training, is a mystery.

I borrowed my boyfriend's car, but that made me nervous because it is much nicer than mine. Also, I'm not super comfortable with his GPS. It snowed that morning and traffic was terrible. I spent the entire ride smiling, conversing with one of my idols, but secretly SCREAMING with anxiety inside my head. But we made it to our destination without any problems and having one on one time with him was AWESOME!

He started out as (and still is) a camp director. But now, in addition to that, he travels around the country to camping conferences and private workshops like ours.

It was super interesting to talk to him about his career. He liked leading trainings for staff (me too) and so he signed up to lead one at a camping conference (easy to do). At the end of it, he lied to the group and said, "I do this professionally and will come to your camp and lead a training. Let me know if you are interested." A lot of people were and from there, he was off and running. A few years later, he gets $2500, plus travel expenses for leading a 5 hour training. Whoa.

My ultimate career goal was to be an executive director of a camp. When I accomplished that goal at 26, I wasn't sure what my next step would be. I'm the type of person who always has a list of life goals that I am working towards and once you check, "land dream job" off the list, what's next? For the past three years, it's been, "do dream job well" and since this camp is in so much need of improvement, and I still have so much to learn, I know that I will busy working towards that goal for many years to come.

But it's an interesting prospect to think that at some point down the line, once I get the hang of my job and once I get this camp in order, there is a next step.

I learned so so many things during the training, but even more than that, I was inspired for my future. Did I mention he was a ROCK STAR?!?!