Leadership

One of the difficult things about having worked at Camp Sheppard is that it's impossible for other people to understand how hard we worked and how much responsibility we had. I remember going to job interviews and thinking that my staff experience was perhaps the most important thing in my background but the interviewer could never understand that. My time at camp taught me more about making decisions, taking responsibility, and working with people than any other experience in my life. In a very large sense it set the direction of my life and made me an adult. Even now it's hard to believe that when we were in our teens we were making decisions that could have life or death consequences. Unless someone was there how could they know what it's like to be responsible for a group's safety on the mountain? After getting a bunch of kids off the summit in 50 mile an hour winds with freezing rain how could anything else in life be that daunting?

We also learned how to deal with people. When you are sitting out a storm for a couple of days in a cramped tent there is no room for the petty behaviors that people can normally get away with in the city. Circumstances during my last summer at camp placed me in the lead staff position. There were many times that summer that I found the responsibility overwhelming and it wasn't always fun, but I learned the most that summer of any summer at camp.

There is one small experience that summer that I have carried with me and kept in mind for the last 25 years. As the staff lead it was my job to try to schedule all of the trips and what staff members would lead the trips. I did the best job I could but found that it was impossible to satisfy everyone. Most staff wanted to spend as much time on the mountain and at times I mistakenly held this over them. The light bulb went on for me in camp after dinner one Saturday night. We all had to get ready for our trips the next morning so it was an extra burden to do the dishes. Knowing that no one really wanted to volunteer I jokingly stated to the group that a couple of the staff would do the dishes or end up leading hikes instead of climbs. One of them replied that he would gladly have done them if only I had asked. It was an experience that only took a minute but taught me to always respect the people you work with and never hold authority over them.

Sheppard staff was the most important team I have ever been a member of. I learned more in that short time than some people learn in a lifetime.