Student Blog: The Burden of Burnout

Before this summer, I thought burnout was purely an academic thing. I’ve always heard the word, but it’s always related to school: teachers would warn that things might be busy right now, don’t burn yourself out by taking on too much. Make sure you’re taking care of yourself, we know this is a stressful time for all of you. 

For me, these comments and the feelings of burnout were especially prevalent during my senior year of high school: college applications and a heavy course load coupled with major senioritis once second semester began meant that by the time school ended, I was ready for a major brain break last summer. I experienced burnout again during this past school year, my first as a college student: when I was finally able to emerge from my finals-induced hibernation, my brain was completely fried and I didn’t want to look at another Canvas page until it was absolutely necessary.  

I think we’ve all experienced academic burnout at one point or another, but I didn’t appreciate that burnout could extend to a summer job until now.

This summer, I spent eight weeks working as a camp counselor. Eight weeks surrounded by children aged anywhere from 5 years old to 15 years old. Eight weeks of bathroom trips, camper safety trainings, staff meetings, and getting to see and experience the other side of the quintessential summer camp experience I had when I was younger. Six of these eight weeks were at a classic day camp, with days filled with swimming, sports, archery, art, and other unique activities, while the last two were spent at a theater camp near and dear to my heart. 

Although this isn’t how I originally imagined I’d be spending my summer, it started out well: I enjoyed the job, I liked getting to spend time with the campers each day, and I developed lots of new skills from being in this type of leadership position for the first time. 

However, as with anything, with the good parts of these jobs came the not-so-good parts: the “problem campers,” so to speak. Spending seven hours a day with elementary and middle school students was more exhausting than I ever anticipated it being, and while the campers were manageable most of the time, there were days when I felt like their behavior was completely out of control no matter what I did to rein them in. About five weeks into the summer, I felt myself getting burnt out. 

Confiding in the other counselors helped, especially since we were all experiencing the same feelings of burnout. Distracting ourselves from our own group’s problems by hearing about other people’s problematic campers, although maybe not the best strategy, helped us all make light of the situation and showed us we were truly all in this together. 

Switching jobs to the theater camp also helped me cope with burnout. I worked at this camp for the past couple of years as a CIT, but this was my first summer as a full-fledged staff member, and it gave me the chance to work directly alongside the staff members I’ve always had a good relationship with. It also put me back in a theater environment, something that’s known to always put a smile on my face. Getting to help teach music and choreograph short songs for the young campers put a smile on my face every day, and I am so glad that that environment is where I chose to end my summer. 

This summer taught me a lot, both about the experience of being a camp counselor and how to cope with a different type of burnout than I’ve experienced previously. As I write this, I’m just a week away from moving back into school and starting a new school year. I will take the coping mechanisms I learned this summer with me in case I feel burnt out as the year progresses. Although I’ll be busy, I’m incredibly excited for this semester and to get back to the people and activities I love.