And there was one summer, I spent the whole summer improvising, because I got a job as a summer camp counselor. And I thought this would be fun. I had worked with kids. I was good with kids. I hadn’t been to summer camp before but we were gonna make this happen. I could do this. I show up at summer camp and they go, “Oh no, no, no, no. We do not need more counselors to sleep in cabins with kids and take them to arts and crafts and whatever. We need more people to take them backpacking and canoeing on three to five day trips.” And I just stood there and looked and said, “What makes you think I know how to canoe or set up a tent?” And they said, “You’ll be great. Don’t worry about it.”
And then, a week later, I ended up in the woods. I hear this 10 year old camper screaming and crying. I turn around and there’s a tick right on her arm. And this is the first tick I have ever seen in my entire life. And every part of my body wanted to also join her in screaming. But obviously I could not do that when I am ch- — in charge of these children in the woods with their first tick. They cannot know it is my first tick. And instead I was very brave and I gave her a hug and I took the tick off ’cause it had been embedded. So I took a bit to calm her down and I got it off. And we talked about it. And afterwards it actually felt really good. Like I was calm after the initial quick second, because I had to be. And since, I’ve seen many adults encounter their first ticks and seen many adults be very not calm and collected and I’m very grateful that I saw my first tick in a time where I did have to fake it ’til I made it and then I did make it and it actually was much better because of it, so. Sometimes it works. There’s a reason sometimes people improvise and also a reason that people just learn on the job.