This is going to be my 10th summer working for TECS summer camps, and for 5 of those years I’ve been working as part of the year-round team.
At the beginning I did summer camp because it was an amazing experience that I absolutely loved to do during the summer. I was in university studying to be a civil engineer, and I MUCH preferred to come out to the sunny south of Spain to do the funnest job in the world rather than work in a rainy old Ireland in Supervalu or something (I even took an extra class to avoid doing my degree work experience). In December 2012 I finished my degree and I decided to come out and work for TECS rather than taking some big fancy engineering job somewhere else as I’d come to love it and thought it was something I could try for a bit if I didn’t end up liking it. 5 years later and here I am!
Over the years I’ve had family, friends, and strangers question my choice of working for a summer camp organisation all year round by saying it is “I presume it’s something for a little while?”, “something for a young person”, “Why wouldn’t I get better paying job?”, etc.. Nobody ever gets it.
I’ll tell you what I’ve had to tell my parents: I feel lucky to have a job that makes me wake up looking forward to going to work in which I have to force myself to go home because I enjoy it so much. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that working in front of a computer is the most fun job in the world (working as a staff member or coordinator on camp in the summer is!) but working in TECS is honestly the best thing that has ever happened to me. Working in this environment in which we all work so hard towards such a noble goal: To give children the most fun, educational and life changing summer we possibly can.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to do what I see so many people do, which is see my job as something in my life that is there to allow me to pay for my personal life. As an annoyance between 9-5 in which I am obliged to go to. It is crazy how many people, either conciously or sub-conciously view their work as this. Well I am lucky to say that it is one of the most rewarding aspects of my life and that still, after 5 years, it still has me waking up happy every morning – So Thank you TECS 😀
P.s. it doesn’t hurt to work surrounded by your best friends!
TECS Employment 