The HabForum

Talking with some of the campers here who are 18/19/20, I have realized that y'all (oh god, I'm picking up the accent!) are the reason I'm not a Mach III counselor. It's very hard to be intimidating as a counselor if you're less than a year (or younger) than your campers... And even if I come back next summer, I'll still only be 20, so I doubt they'll let me work with AA or Mach III then... *grumbles*

I know the feeling... Looking younger than I am it can be difficult to gain the respect of teenagers and sometimes even adults. Space Camp has a point there. However, if you do great as a counsellor this year you never know, they may let you be an ASA or MIII counsellor next year.

although I see where you're going Soccer, the counselors at ASA and (I'm guessing Mach III) are not intimidating, For the older groups it is more of a "i give you respect you give me respect" sort of thing ( sounds cheesy i know )

I'm lifeguarding again this summer and I know how it is getting people to listen. Kids are pretty easy, teens can be delt with but adults, they are the ones who sometimes cause the most problems! And i don't think they like a 17 year old telling them that they can't do something....

It must be really strange being a counselor for adult camp, although it seemed that both campers and counselors didn't really think much about how young/old everyone was during our session.

I am pretty sure I am older than Tim, despite him being a counselor... I'm 18 and 9 months. He seems to be 18 and something less.

I don't really think it is the age of councilors that matters. I just got back from camp today, and from what I observed, the Advanced teams will respect and listen to the councilors who relate to them and will have fun with them.

i think it's entirely possible to gain their respect, I just don't think the camp will put me with them because I'll wind up blending in too much... They usually don't give new counselors MIII/ASA anyway (though that's not an ALWAYS thing)...

last year when i was there my councelor at Mach III (Irish) was only 19 it was his first year too so you never know what will happen

I don't know about Mach III, but to be an AA counselor you must be 21 or older- no ifs ands or buts about it. Apparently they didn't used to have that rule and young counselors had problems because of it. I personally think the counselor shouldn't be the same age as the trainees.

I agree that a counselor shouldn't be the same age as the campers - that's why I didn't try to be a Mach III counselor too hard...