124. Organizing Summer Camp

Summer camp isn't just for kids...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

So it's not even mid-July yet, and I'm already meeting with my son's school, which is totally fine. They are awesome. I love preparation, obviously, organization. I love receiving all the information. I want to know what's expected of him and me and us and what's coming up and schedules and all of that. So everything is fine. It's just very different than when we went to school in the 80s and 90s, because I feel like we got out maybe like the first week of June, and then we didn't go back until after Labor Day. So when you went to pick out your school clothes, it was actually somewhat cool outside, at least in Indiana. This has not been the case in Tennessee. You get back to school long sleeves, sweaters, pullovers, and you're struggling because you really want to wear them, but then you've got to wait till like November, which is fine. It's just, it's all very different. And there are times that I feel like year-round school is a good solution for kids because it does resemble real life. Because most professions can't just take the whole summer off unless you're a teacher. And so when you've got teachers and students being the ones that are off for the summer, there are some times where I'm like, you know, it probably would be nice to have a longer spring break. Not that we have to make these kids be adults already, but when you look at the school year as a whole, it's like, okay, let's work them, work them, work them, take a long break at Christmas, work them, work them, work them, take spring break, take a long summer break. There's lots of longer breaks. And I do think that that can get kids out of sync. I sometimes feel out of whack when I'm not working for a long time and I'm not, I guess, activating that part of my brain. But the great thing about summers for a lot of kids is they get to go to summer camp. My son was going to do a drop-in camp last year, and we kind of missed the boat. And it was also on the other side of town. So I was like, I think we're good. This year he has taken tennis lessons. And then every weekend he does like a competition type thing with this video game esports thing that he really likes. And so we've done a pretty good job of balancing, doing a spore and doing more of like the video game coding stuff. And then, of course, you know, we're swimming and doing a lot of that. But I met with the school today, and once the kids go back, they actually have a small trip that they're going to take for a few days. And so that will actually put him into a summer camp type atmosphere for a few days in August. And so I'm like, well, that kind of worked out because they want the kids to socialize and they want the kids to be in that environment where they are really focused on getting to know each other and they're doing activities and team building and all that stuff. So I'm definitely in favor of all of that. It just reminded me today of when I went to summer camp. I went to Girl Scout camp and I only did the drop-off day camp. And I've never really been too much of a woodsy person. I don't mind doing stuff outdoors. I love playing tennis outside. I love playing golf outside. I will go for a walk around a neighborhood. But I am not really one to go for hikes. I'm not really one to go camping and kayaking. And it's just not me. It never has been. And so I think that's one thing that is really great about trying a bunch of stuff when you're a kid, trying a bunch of stuff when you're a teenager, exploring even in your 20s. Maybe you switched jobs a few times, maybe you move to a different state. I do think that it's good to get out of your comfort zone and figure out who you are. And there's a part of me that gets a little bit emotional when I talk about this because I feel like there are some people that are on one end of the spectrum where they've lived in the same place their entire life and they haven't really branched out that much. And they maybe long for more opportunities and taking more risks and trying different things. And then you have the other end of the spectrum that moves around a lot. And I'm definitely on that end of the spectrum. Since I've had a child, I've really slowed down with that. And a lot of the moves have been based around trying to be closer to family. And so we have tried different combinations of being close to my family and then coming back, and he's close to his father. And so we're kind of settling in right now and figuring out is this school gonna be his school until he graduates high school, which is kind of exciting, especially since there has been a lot of shifting around and moving and trying to figure out what is the best situation for us because sometimes it's not obvious. When I was a kid, you just lived in the neighborhood that you lived in, you went to the school down the street, camps over the summer. There weren't usually that many options. Normally you would go to camp and you would see a lot of the kids that you went to school with. We would do little league. We would go to the swimming pool, the local swimming pool. So it did feel a little bit more community-based to an extent. I think that growing up during that time, I think a lot of people my age remember the great stuff about the 80s and 90s. But I also think we were very limited in what we were learning and what we were being taught. And so I thought about that today because I went to Girl Scout camp. And so, you know, I remember we practiced our different handshakes and we worked on our badges. And I do remember being taught how to fold the American flag properly. We would pull it down from the flagpole, we would take it off, we would fold it, hand it off. And so those were different things that we would learn. And it was just a very different environment to learn that in. And you were outside and you definitely got bit by mosquitoes, and you were definitely hot and uncomfortable. There wasn't a lot of air conditioning back in the 80s. I remember being hot a lot of the 80s. I remember sleeping in bed and just sweating, and we would have like a window open and there would be a fan going. And I'm like, this is so miserable. But anyway, I thought about it today and I was like, this is gonna be great for him because he's never really done a sleepaway camp. He's 12 years old. He is definitely ready to do something like that. I think it's gonna be fun. But then I also think about what do the parents do when the kids are away at camp? And I know a lot of you say, well, we have to work, we have to get stuff done. I totally understand. I am always looking for ways to get stuff done when my child is either with his father or he is at some kind of practice, or if grandma's in town. And so I know that a lot of times when our kids go off and do something where they are growing and learning and figuring out who they are, a lot of us are using that time to catch up on work, catch up on sleep, which I don't even know how I'm getting through today because I literally slept 20 minutes last night. And that was partially my fault because I stayed up late working on a project, and all of a sudden it was 4 a.m. And I thought that I would be able to rest at 4 a.m. And then all of a sudden it was 8. And so I think I dozed off for maybe 20 minutes and I'll catch up tonight. But back to the point when the kids are off learning about themselves and they're socializing and they're figuring out who they are. I would encourage you this summer, and I know that we're already halfway through, it really snuck up on me. But I think what we need to focus on right now, while we still have the summer, is what is going to be your summer camp? Sure. If you're interested in organizing your home, you're definitely in the right place. And obviously, there's other organizing podcasts, websites, tutorials, YouTube videos, there's a lot of information out there if you want to learn how to organize. But I would encourage you over the next few weeks as we're finishing out the summer, if you haven't taken the time yet, if your kids are either at grandma's, if they're at camp, if they are trying something new, I think the summer is a really good time for us as adults, no matter how old we are, to push ourselves a little bit and get ourselves out of our comfort zones. Because I have learned that when I get too cozy and too comfortable, I give myself a break. And sometimes that break leads to a loss of creativity. It leads to me slipping back into old habits. I've talked before how I used to compete in fitness and then COVID happened. And then all of a sudden, I allowed myself to change my habits to where now, six years later, I'm no longer any version of that self. And it makes me sad because it was something I truly enjoyed. But on the flip side of that, part of the reason that I backed off with all of that was because I wanted to podcast. I never stopped during COVID and started a podcast like a lot of people did. I never got on TikTok. I was so late to all of those different things. I literally just bought an air fryer last week. I'm six years late to that party. But that's okay. A lot of people were stuck at home. I was not, I was still able to work and do a lot outside of the home. And that kept my mind off of things and it kept me busy. And then when I finally slowed down a little bit and everyone else was getting back out into the world, that's when I realized that there were all of these new options of ways that we could put ourselves out there. So when our kids are at camp or they're busy doing new activities, sure, we can revisit things that we used to love to do. We can take ourselves back and we can also learn tennis. We can also play golf again. We can draw, we can sing, we can learn an instrument. But sometimes we should give ourselves the permission to try something 100% new that we have not ever tried before. And I know of people who have done this recently where maybe they weren't ever comfortable being in front of a camera. And that doesn't necessarily have to be a video camera, it could just be photography. You know, maybe somebody wants to take pictures for their website. They want to start a business, they want to start a blog. And now they're saying, okay, but I need pictures. I need pictures of me. I need pictures of my products, of what I'm doing. And so that's scary for some people. Not everybody wants to get on a microphone and talk about their life or their business. And not everybody wants to get on a website and write for a blog. And not everybody wants to get on social media and update everyone when they're doing something new. And that's actually fine. That's healthy. If you don't want to do it, you shouldn't just jump on the bandwagon and start doing stuff just because everybody else is doing it. I mean, I got the air fryer because I wanted to be able to make hamburgers without standing over a stove and all of the smoke and being tied to that task for, you know, 12, 13 minutes, however long it took me. Now I can just put everything in, push a button, walk away. So we're all finding things that are new at different stages of life. I played in little league, I played volleyball, I learned tennis in high school, but I didn't learn golf until my 20s. And that made me kind of sad because I would have loved to have been on the golf team in high school once I learned how to play golf later in life. But we learn things at different stages of life. Sometimes we go to a school that doesn't offer certain activities or sports. Maybe when we get into band, we play the flute because our friend is going to play the flute. But maybe we always wanted to play the clarinet. Maybe you wanted to play the drums, and there were only so many people that could play the drums. Maybe you've wanted to try a sport, maybe you've wanted to take a trip. I encourage you for the summer that we actually have left, let's really push ourselves and not just complete our to-dos, our tasks. Let's live a little. Let's try to embrace that childlike wonder of hey, I wonder what that would be like, or hey, I'm gonna go somewhere where I don't know someone or do an activity that my friend isn't signing up for. I'm gonna go by myself and I'll meet new people. I think we lose that. And I think that there are times that we may have a friend or a spouse or a family member say, Hey, go do this with me. And then we go do it and we have a great time, and we're like, we should do this more often. And so this is your reminder. This is your organizing summer camp reminder that you don't have to spend the summer organizing your pantry or your closet. I am giving you permission to organize your thoughts, organize your interest, and you can maybe find something that you didn't even know existed, and that becomes part of your new routine. And maybe some of the things you have been doing aren't really working, and that's why you're having trouble organizing your things, organizing your mind, organizing your space. A lot of you are frantic, running around, trying to do all the things that used to work for you. Just like I have been chasing the same old workout, the same old macros, everything that I used to do when I competed, not all of it works anymore. And so if I want to get back to a similar program, I'm gonna have to make some changes and I'm gonna have to push myself and I'm gonna have to figure out what this next phase is gonna look like for those activities and those goals and those interests. So just something to think about as you're sitting there looking over all of the different options that your child has for July or the options that your child has for the fall starting school. As you're getting all that information, realize that you still have some time left for the summer. It is only the 10th of July. And for us growing up, we still would have had two more months to figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the summer. So we could lounge around and we could be lazy, and then we could still have a couple of months to do some new things and to try some things out. We've got about a month for those of you who have kids that are going back to school in August. And for those of you that once September rolls around, the weather starts getting kind of weird again and cold, this is your time. If you never learned how to swim, if you never learned how to ride a bike, if you actually are interested in kayaking, which again, I'm not, but that's okay. If you're interested in it and you've never done it, go find someone that can show you. Go find your own organizing camp counselor. And one thing that I am gonna say, I've said this before, is that eventually I do want to host some kind of summer camp. Originally, I thought it was gonna be for the kids to teach them organizing skills before they get to a point of no return where they just decide I don't want to do it. But I also think that maybe down the road doing some kind of adult summer camp, maybe something to think about. Um, if you guys want to give me some feedback, you can email me at label toorganizing at gmail.com. Tell me what you think. In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the summer. And if you've been struggling with your closet or your pantry or your garage, again, I give you, I give you permission to put everything down for a little bit and go enjoy the sunshine. Go get some fresh air. And remember, your projects will still be waiting for you when the fall and the cold weather rolls back around. I hope this episode was helpful. Please make sure to subscribe to the bonus content. The minimum contribution is only $3 a month, and you have access to all prior bonus episodes that I have recorded in the last two and a half years. Please find us on YouTube at labeled organizing and on Instagram at labeled organizing. Thank you so much. I will see you in the next episode.