“Maybe it isn’t that everybody needs to go to camp. Maybe everyone just needs a camp director.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about that. Because I don't think he meant somebody with a radio and a golf cart. I think he meant an adult who sees you. An adult who believes that you are capable of something you don't quite believe yet. Someone willing to challenge you. Someone who won't solve every problem for you. Someone who lets you screw something up without deciding that the screw-up defines you. Someone who tells you the truth. And somebody who, at the right moment, says some version of:

I see you. I expect something from you. I'm not doing it for you. But I'm not going anywhere.

That's a camp director. And my argument this morning is that the job is much bigger than running a good camp. Our job is to create growth. In children. In young adults. In organizations. In the people around us. And, if we're doing it right, in ourselves.”