Working with Others
Definition: the ability to effectively interact with other people in order to complete tasks and achieve shared goals.
Criteria: reliable, involved, respectful, committed, and positive
Example:
One of my favorite experiences that I have gained while being at A&M is being a fish camp counselor this summer. It was one of the most fun and most rewarding times in my life. The whole organization is just incredible to me. The counselors are insane, the crew is way too nice, and being around that many new students your age is intense and awesome at the same time. Fish Camp is such a fun, wild, and crazy time, but the amount of work that goes into those 4 days is immense, but so worth it.
As soon as I left Fish Camp my freshmen year, I knew that being a counselor was something I had to do. When the applications came out the following semester, I applied without any reservations. After my interview, I was feeling pretty good about my chances, but still tried not to get my hopes up. Waiting a month for that acceptance letter was awful. Once I finally opened it, I was thrilled. I was so excited and anxious about the whole experience. I was nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to be myself and that the other counselors wouldn’t like me. I had heard so many great things about other people’s camps and was worried that wasn’t going to be the case for me.
After meeting my camp for the first time, I knew that my doubts were completely off. Everyone in my camp seemed to be so great and interesting. I knew the next 8 months were going to be incredible. Now at this point, it would be expected that I would say, “Well I thought my camp was great…” and then talk about how it actually wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. But fortunately, I can’t say that. I can easily say (and I do all the time) that I had the perfect camp experience. Now when I say this, I mean all of the good and all of the not so good things. It may be that I can say this with such ease because I obviously have nothing to compare it to as I was an inexperienced counselor this summer, but I know that is not the case.
Going into the summer after my freshmen year, I knew most of the people in my camp, but not as well as I would have liked. I would only be able to see most of them only 4 weekends that summer before actual Fish Camp. I went into the summer determined to make the most of these 4 weekends. Two of those weekends were work days and two of them were road trips. After the first road trip, we all bonded SO much. It was fantastic. We went to a beach house and just goofed around and relaxed for 3 days, so basically it was perfect. It was during this road trip that I became really close with my partner and my two current best friends.
During the first work weekend is when some people’s true personalities came out. During this weekend, our main job was to figure out which skits we were doing and to paint banners endlessly. We ran on very little sleep all weekend and some people did not handle that well. When a group of 25 very different people work together, naturally everyone isn’t going to always get along. In our camp, we really only had a few people who were difficult to work with. Overall, the enthusiastic and pumped fish camp vibe was ever-present. We were simply just happy to be together.
Unfortunately, there was one guy who seemed to not get along with everyone. When this fact became noticeable by everyone, it became the trend to sort of make fun of him. He took it well, but only as well as someone really could. Granted, he was frustrating sometimes, but as a camp we were not supposed to treat each other badly. I became very close with two girls in my camp who were my age. We noticed this trend and it started to weigh heavily on us. We quickly decided to actively do what we could to change the trend.
This was hard to do when none of us lived in College Station during the summer, so we decided to really make an effort when we would finally all be together a few days before camp in August. Once we started acting sweeter towards him, a few more people in camp caught on and changed their behavior too. There were of course people in camp who did not change, but most people did. It was really great to watch.
Fish Camp went perfectly for Camp Flint that summer. It was amazing. I will never forget my 8 months with those 25 people. I learned so much about myself and about how to work with others. I learned that you aren’t always going to be working with people who you like and get along with, but you have to be accepting and maybe change some things about yourself in order to achieve your goals. You have to be open to how people are then respect them for it, regardless of your opinion of them. This can all easily happen with a good attitude. I really do think if you truly have a positive outlook on people and situations then your life will be that much fuller. Fish Camp helped me learn this.
Definition: the ability to effectively interact with other people in order to complete tasks and achieve shared goals.
Criteria: reliable, involved, respectful, committed, and positive
Example:
One of my favorite experiences that I have gained while being at A&M is being a fish camp counselor this summer. It was one of the most fun and most rewarding times in my life. The whole organization is just incredible to me. The counselors are insane, the crew is way too nice, and being around that many new students your age is intense and awesome at the same time. Fish Camp is such a fun, wild, and crazy time, but the amount of work that goes into those 4 days is immense, but so worth it.
As soon as I left Fish Camp my freshmen year, I knew that being a counselor was something I had to do. When the applications came out the following semester, I applied without any reservations. After my interview, I was feeling pretty good about my chances, but still tried not to get my hopes up. Waiting a month for that acceptance letter was awful. Once I finally opened it, I was thrilled. I was so excited and anxious about the whole experience. I was nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to be myself and that the other counselors wouldn’t like me. I had heard so many great things about other people’s camps and was worried that wasn’t going to be the case for me.
After meeting my camp for the first time, I knew that my doubts were completely off. Everyone in my camp seemed to be so great and interesting. I knew the next 8 months were going to be incredible. Now at this point, it would be expected that I would say, “Well I thought my camp was great…” and then talk about how it actually wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. But fortunately, I can’t say that. I can easily say (and I do all the time) that I had the perfect camp experience. Now when I say this, I mean all of the good and all of the not so good things. It may be that I can say this with such ease because I obviously have nothing to compare it to as I was an inexperienced counselor this summer, but I know that is not the case.
Going into the summer after my freshmen year, I knew most of the people in my camp, but not as well as I would have liked. I would only be able to see most of them only 4 weekends that summer before actual Fish Camp. I went into the summer determined to make the most of these 4 weekends. Two of those weekends were work days and two of them were road trips. After the first road trip, we all bonded SO much. It was fantastic. We went to a beach house and just goofed around and relaxed for 3 days, so basically it was perfect. It was during this road trip that I became really close with my partner and my two current best friends.
During the first work weekend is when some people’s true personalities came out. During this weekend, our main job was to figure out which skits we were doing and to paint banners endlessly. We ran on very little sleep all weekend and some people did not handle that well. When a group of 25 very different people work together, naturally everyone isn’t going to always get along. In our camp, we really only had a few people who were difficult to work with. Overall, the enthusiastic and pumped fish camp vibe was ever-present. We were simply just happy to be together.
Unfortunately, there was one guy who seemed to not get along with everyone. When this fact became noticeable by everyone, it became the trend to sort of make fun of him. He took it well, but only as well as someone really could. Granted, he was frustrating sometimes, but as a camp we were not supposed to treat each other badly. I became very close with two girls in my camp who were my age. We noticed this trend and it started to weigh heavily on us. We quickly decided to actively do what we could to change the trend.
This was hard to do when none of us lived in College Station during the summer, so we decided to really make an effort when we would finally all be together a few days before camp in August. Once we started acting sweeter towards him, a few more people in camp caught on and changed their behavior too. There were of course people in camp who did not change, but most people did. It was really great to watch.
Fish Camp went perfectly for Camp Flint that summer. It was amazing. I will never forget my 8 months with those 25 people. I learned so much about myself and about how to work with others. I learned that you aren’t always going to be working with people who you like and get along with, but you have to be accepting and maybe change some things about yourself in order to achieve your goals. You have to be open to how people are then respect them for it, regardless of your opinion of them. This can all easily happen with a good attitude. I really do think if you truly have a positive outlook on people and situations then your life will be that much fuller. Fish Camp helped me learn this.