Being A Grown Up Research Paper

Being on a team is one of the hardest things I have had to do. It’s usually not because of the given task, but rather meshing with your teammates. It is a frustrating process; Especially when paired with people who you don’t exactly see eye to eye with. When you are on a team and placed in a tough situation, a person shows their true colors.
One of my passions is being a camp counselor. However, it is not the easiest job in the world. I have to rely on others, usually people I do not know very well, to help me do my job. The long hours take a toll on you and children are sometimes difficult. I have been a counselor for one camp for six years now. This camp is a faith-based camp that is not like other summer camps. It not only has participants
play sports and do arts and crafts, but challenges them to think critically about real world issues. The camp also strives to reinforce our values into the participants. For five years, I participated in the Birmingham and Memphis camps. Most people involved in this camp are people I had known. This made becoming teammates much easier. This year I had to opportunity to take part in the same camp but in Seattle Washington. This meant that I would be working with complete strangers. The only thing we would have in common is our religion. Since the camp and training is only two weeks long, seeing someone for who they truly are would be difficult.
Anyone can mask who they are on a day-to-day basis; In fact, it is a skill I have pretty much mastered. Tough situations definitely arise when working with six to thirteen-year-olds from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m... These situations forced my co-counselors to show their true colors at some point and not act like someone they were not. I saw some go from being the most welcoming people to being fed up with the participants they were responsible for. Not everyone acted like a better version of themselves, however. Some of the shy co-counselors broke out of their shells and made sure they were heard. It is strange that someone who you can view as mature and well-rounded transform to the opposite. It just goes to show that being a complete grown-up is not possible. Being grown-up means being unselfish.
Being a grown-up allows you to look at situations from multiple perspectives. Being a grown-up means being mature and not holding grudges. As a camp counselor, I have found the best co-counselors are the ones who are grown-up more often than not. The hard part is determining how often someone is a grown-up. This year I was a counselor for oldest age group the camp allows. One of the most important aspects of the camp is an hour-long activity called Interpersonal Exchange. We discuss real world problems such as poverty in third world countries, environmental issues, and racial stereotyping during this time. These topics are pretty serious so getting a twelve to thirteen-year-old to openly discuss these issues is one of the most challenging aspects of the job. The most successful discussion my group had been one revolved around race-based college admissions. Not many things are more entertaining than watching a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds debate on whether or whether not race-based college admissions are acceptable. The knowledge this group of participants had about this topic truly caught me off guard. One participant even brought up the situation that took place in the Supreme Court of an issue at the University of Texas. While one of the most impressive debates was going on, I also see my co-counselor --- who is an upcoming senior in high school --- flirting with another
counselor.
The fact that these middle schoolers were aware and passionate about a problem does not impact them shows that age is not a need for being grown-up.
Grown-ups realize that the world does not revolve around them. What I saw was not an attempt at trying to pretend to know what they are talking about. This may sound ridiculous, but it is a problem. People are too afraid to admit they do not know something and pretend they are knowledgeable about the topic. Jimmy Kimmel is famous for taking advantage of this phenomenon with his “Lie Witness News” segment.
Now while these participants were impressive during that debate, that does not mean to say they were little saints during the camp. Being around a group of participants for about eight hours a day forces you to see many sides from one person. It not only happened with my participants, but with everyone I worked with. Everyone had their moments of being “grown-up” and those moments were sometimes triggered by different events. I have worked with many ages and while I do not believe age correlates with how grown-up you are; People do get a better feel of when to act grown-up, however.
It is important to realize that no matter what age, gender, or race someone is, you will never really figure out who that person is. The human mind is fascinating and that is due to no one being able to figure out how it works. The best favor you can do for yourself and others is to simply give everyone a chance and avoid making
assumptions.