Thrive!

At the beginning of the summer, I challenged my counselors and myself to not merely survive this summer but to thrive.  To think of ways to grow, to learn, to find ways to be better.  I think that at the most tired of times throughout the summer, that song, that phrase, "Thrive", kept me going at a high standard.  In summer's past, it's been all about surviving the summer but I wanted to grow this summer.  Yeah, sometimes I fell.  Sometimes we all fell short.  But as a group, these counselors and staff held one another to a high standard as well. We supported each other like I had never seen.  I came out of this summer a different person than I went in.  The same sort of feeling I had after my first summer which completely altered my life forever.  The change wasn't as drastic but I was changed, excited to do my best, to love the kids the best way possible, to love my counselors and enable them to thrive too.  Looking back at the summer which I kinda didn't want to end, I know that we achieved our goal.  We thrived. We had challenging kids that no one loved and we loved them.  We had weird days/situations that challenged our patience and we kept our cool.  We had bad days that shook us to our core (at least to my core!) and required us to keep putting one step in front of the other until we got past the pain. We had people try to disrupt the harmony of our group and we trusted each other and didn't believe the lies.  We, as a group, were a high functioning, loving, thriving, growing, unified family.  Thanks for everything.  Love you all!  Casting Crown's Thrive Video