Two rescue breaths

The human race has long thought of itself ignorantly as the ultimate goal of evolution, as the top of the food chain, the masters of the earth, of the cosmos even. What the humans have long overlooked was the race that towers above them, while living in the very same neighborhoods, for most of the year, effortlessly blending into the crowd, utterly indistinguishable. Yet, this very similar race answers to a higher calling, or perhaps suffers from a rare disorder, and along with the turn of the seasons they make themselves know for three long months. These are what we classify as camp counselors, a both psychologically and physically impossible entity. While relatively hard to spot for most of the year when the days begin to lengthen in the summer months they show themselves. You will notice generally sane and mostly well dressed people disappearing from your neighborhood, do not be alarmed they are not being hurt, they are gathering, you may not see them again until the fall. They are going to spend the summer months acting as a rare unnaturally occurring combination of a judge, doctor, coach, entertainer, and most of all friend. They are out on an impossible mission to undue ten years of damage in just six days. These ordinary people in your neighborhood, these average Joes and Janes, are in fact anything but ordinary. They are super heroes, unbathed kneeling in mud with a questionable case of what appears to be poison ivy, lungs filled with woodsmoke, and a genuine unwavering smile, trying indefinitely to start a campfire in a downpour, because they promised their campers s'mores.
You may wonder why anyone would do such a thing, but long have scholars pondered the very same question to no avail. The money is surely not what drives these creatures into the woods for a summer free of rest or relaxation. For at the end of the summer the average counselor has saved enough to buy one college textbook, a pair of new shoes to replace the pair mangled in the name of adventure, a new package of socks for the same reason, and enough gas to get back to campus.
After hearing this you may feel compelled to ask if any of it is really worth it. But then you would never be able to truly understand. I can try to describe to you why they do what they do, but until you are there until you see it, you will never truly understand. A camp counselor is, for lack of a more perfect word, worshiped by the campers they receive, but this is not why they do it, they are not at all conceited. They do it, all of it, for pickup day, the day at the end of the week when the campers return to your neighborhoods, different, confident. You see, the counselors remember how the campers came to them, some were silent, some may have even been screaming, crying, latched to their parents legs with a death grip. They came terrified and shy, unsure of themselves, ignorant of their true potential. In just six days of unmatched enthusiasm and effort, they leave smiling, joyous, promising to stay in touch forever, bragging about how they walked off the zip platform, the campers are glowing, they are confident, they are unstoppable. This is why the counselors do it, this is what makes them tick, keeps them going, it was never the coffee. To know they have made an impact in the life of child is worth never getting eight hours of sleep, missing out on the summer blockbusters, vacations, and all the other minor inconveniences that go along with the job.
Next time you find yourself in a Wal~mart and you see a rather rushed looking twenty some year old with a cart full of saran wrap, water balloons, and a single candy bar dressed in tye dye, arms strewn with friendship bracelets, muddy untied tennis shoes, and perhaps a questionable smell, take a second to think of how their day has gone so far. Three skinned knees, a bloody nose, five homesick campers, a bee sting, one lost bathing suit, countless "unbearable" mosquito bites, and thirty individual friendship bracelet making lessons to ten people; then look at your watch notice that it is only one o' clock, and realize you are standing next what can only be described as a super hero working each and everyday to change the world.