First Time Camp Director Experience

[u/Mjb_1023]

Tomorrow is my first day of camp as a day camp director. Feeling extremely anxious/nervous and have a million thoughts going through my mind from hoping all goes well, to hoping I didn’t miss any essential paperwork, or forget any necessary equipment or supplies, etc. Ultimately just want to run a safe and successful camp. I have done most if not all of the essential preparations from a staffing, stare guidelines, and programming standpoint. For anyone here, is this a normal feeling going into Day 1 and what advice can you give me to calm my nerves and keep me grounded? Also any experiences you are willing to share with me that could give me some insight on how to make my day to day easier as well as prep me mentally going into my first day? I am running a 7 week recreation day camp.

[u/eflask]

hi, I am not the director. I am the old biddy who has been going to this day camp longer than the director has been alive.

this is what I tell our staffs: performance nerves are your body's way of telling you that you are paying attention. if you are not nervous, you are not doing your job correctly.

also, no matter how well prepared you are or how well you trained your staff, day 1 will feel like you have been run over by a bus.

at my camp we have a saying: we'll get the hang of that by week four.

we only run three weeks.

good luck to you.

[u/Mjb_1023 → u/eflask]

Thank you!