The idea of summer always just looms over students as the weather starts to get warmer. Somehow homework loads get lighter and all you want to do is eat cold foods and sit outside. The word itself doesn't even have to be said out loud, but everyone knows that with summer — no school, no homework — comes a nice brief period of total relaxation.

Unfortunately when you hit a certain age — namely 16, when you become of legal working age — it becomes time to get a summer job. That means, of course, waking up early and spending your afternoons locked inside either an overly or underly air-conditioned building counting down the hours until you get off for the night.

It sounds like something dreadful. While you may be able to drive (an aspect of 16 that sounds extremely appealing at age 14), the car spends most of its time parked outside a minimum-wage-paying workplace.

Somehow, though, I have managed to get a job I am actually looking forward to this summer, a continuation of what I did last year.

In 2008 I was accepted as a 4-H Memorial Camp counselor. I applied through the U of I Extension and was offered the job in the spring. It sounded awesome! That was … until I arrived.

I realized that I was the only person on the staff who hadn't been at the camp (whether as an employee or a camper) in the last five years. I also realized that I was 16. The average age was about 19 to 20. While everyone stood there giving each other hugs I stood there not knowing anyone.

We talked as a large group about rules the week before camp started. The counselors weren't supposed to be in staff cabins unless they really needed to be there. That was a rule I was sure to obey considering that I didn't really know what "staff cabins" were let alone where they were. We talked about staying away from the rolling meadows late at night. Rolling meadows? Again. Not so sure. In essence, I was fairly lost. And the fact that I continually struggle to put names with faces was not to my advantage.

I was told multiple horror stories about a girl in pink pajamas dying! And about how one of the counselors had a raccoon come in her cabin and pee on her bed in a previous year. But she reassured me that it was easy for her just to go do the necessary laundry in the laundry room (but I was too afraid to ask where this supposed laundry room was located).

I am also a picky eater. So after the first week of camp, I came home completely starved. I had lost weight. I do not eat sandwiches or hamburgers or hot dogs or chips. Guess what camps aimed for kids ages 8-16 serve for lunch and dinner? Sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips. I immediately went home and bought myself a gigantic cheesecake, devouring the entire thing in one weekend.

What I had thought would be the time of my life was turning out to be pretty difficult. I was in charge of a cabin of 10 girls who were about 9 years old. I couldn't remember names. I also couldn't figure out how to set my alarm properly and on multiple occasions ended up waking up at 6:30 instead of 7:30. This was going to take some getting used to.

After the first one and a half weeks my boyfriend was not in town and most of my friends were holding day jobs as well, so I abandoned even attempting to use my cell phone. I started to spend most of the daylight hours with one other kid my age down at the lake helping kids learn to boat, and we immediately became friends. When it became night time we decided to meet in the middle of an open field to talk and hang out.

Throughout the remaining weeks I learned that the perk of working as a camp counselor out at Allerton Park was the fact that it really is isolated. The fun comes in not having the computers or the cell phones or the televisions but instead just people to talk with. A nonbeliever in ghost stories, I heard about so many freaky incidents that it became almost part of the culture of the camp to indulge in the rumors.

One night as I was out walking toward what was known as the "sunken garden" I heard a loud growl. I screamed, of course, assuming a giant beast was about to attack me. The friend I was walking with threw me against the wall as protection against the large, fierce animal, only for us both to realize that we were being growled at by a mother raccoon who was walking her babies to the garden. We stood still, and she waddled along and was gone within minutes. We couldn't help but to laugh at ourselves all the way back to our cabins.

I also learned an important life lesson while out at camp: Watch where you park. Being that the summer days were so hot, the counselor sharing the cabin across from mine and I parked our cars in the ditch underneath a tree to get shade. After the first day of each week of camp you normally forget all about your car since you don't use it until the week is over (to drive back home). Well, it started to rain. And rain. And while I was in the shower I heard a camper run in yelling, "Miss Lizzy, Miss Lizzy! Your cars are drowning!"

Not comprehending what was going on I hopped out of the shower only to see that, yes indeed, our cars were drowning. It was time for dinner so we sent our campers down to the dining hall and recruited all the male counselors we could find. Apparently we had parked over a drain, and so all the water had created a big puddle since it had no where to escape. The other female counselor and I both sat in the driver's side of our cars, putting them in neutral and steered our way out of the ditch while the boys pushed with all of their might. My mom was not so excited to hear that my car had to dry in the sun for a day or two.

But the part that made the work experience so relaxing and the reason for all these fun stories (or maybe the drowning of my car is just fun in hindsight) was the fact that I was able to surround myself with a unique group of people. Being at Uni it has seemed like college is a given and Democrats are the reigning majority. It was not until this last summer that I truly was given an insight into an alternative lifestyle, and although some people often conflicted with the beliefs I was raised with, I found it gave me an appreciation of different viewpoints.

So, this coming summer I have accepted the job offer to return as a camp counselor. Although I will be young I am hoping that I am at least not the youngest counselor out there anymore. At the same time I am excited to get to see all the friends I had made last year and to spend another summer making more memories. No technology. No mean customers. Just a group of great people.