To Save a Life
To Save A Life
Life is full of surprises. The people you meet. The places
they can take you. And the experiences you can have. None of that might happen
at all, without an open mind and a willingness to try something new.
This became the meaning of my fourth and final(?) time on an
American summer camp in 2010. And on that camp experience, I was privileged to
see a movie I might otherwise have never seen if I didn’t return to camp. That
movie, is “To Save a Life”. We’ve reached the final review for the Movies of My
20’s, and thanks for reading this far. I’ve counted this unique film as the definitive
film of my 20’s, so let me tell you why…
2007 was my third and final year at my first summer camp,
Summit Camp. I did the summer sessions of 2004, 2006 and 2007. After my final
time at Summit, I thought I was done with camp, as my future beckoned. It was
in late 2008, as I was working as a representative for the sponsor company Camp
America, interviewing first time applicants and speaking at information
sessions, that I met a fellow Camp America staff member. Her name was Nicole.
She had just returned from her third time at camp, located
in Indiana and part of the YMCA organisation. It was called Camp Crosley, and
Nicole would speak of it very fondly and often. As we started going out, I had
also just started my first full-time Youth Work job. Getting the role right
after earning my Diploma, I dove into the deep end of working with young
people, and had no idea what I had really gotten myself into. It was tough, to
put it bluntly. There I was at age 26, with just a few years’ experience
working on a camp for kids with special needs and my Youth Work qualifications under
my belt. But no real youth worker experience so to speak of. The role I took
first up was an Intensive Support Worker, with an organisation called Brosnan
Youth Services.
Working with young people involved with Youth Justice and
Child Protection, most of them were either in custody and about to be released
or in the community on various orders, parole or bail. My job was to help them
get set up for independence and reduce their likelihood of reoffending and
getting locked up again. This consisted of arranging temporary accommodation,
some kind of day program and links with other specialised services for young
people. I was allocated some very challenging clients, and trying to be the
Nice Youth Worker who would help every adolescent I would worked with, I
quickly learnt the hard way, that mentality doesn’t move you forward as a youth
worker.
To keep a long story short, I was feeling burnt out and
ready for something else within a year of the job. A three-week adventure trip
to New Zealand in late 2009 was a good break, and reminded me the travel bug
was still well and truly itching me. Then, Nicole started talking about going
back to her camp one more time. She asked me if I’d like to go. My initial
feeling was uncertain, as I felt loyal to my camp, and going somewhere else
seemed a little conflicting. No other camp counsellors I had met had gone to another
camp. Once you went to one, you would usually go there year after year, and
changing camps was not really common. But, I was in love with a girl I knew I
would spend my life with, and I was open for a travelling adventure with her.
If that meant going to a different camp, then that’s what it would be. I handed
in my resignation at work, and in May 2010, Nicole and I headed off to Camp
Crosley, in Northern Indiana.
Instantly, it was completely different from my camp which
was located in the hills of Pennsylvania. The children were different, the feel
of the camp was different, and the staff were mostly 19/20-year-old American
college students, whereas my former camp was mostly international staff in
their early twenties. There was no way I could compare the two, and I never would.
I entered my twelve weeks at Camp Crosley with an open mind and a willingness
to learn things all over again, while also bringing my experience of having
already done three summers on another camp.
During staff orientation, the week of before the campers
would arrive, part of the staff training was a movie night. Not just any movie,
but a film that was made with a very clear purpose. Camp Crosley was a YMCA
Camp, which meant there was a Christian influence over the way the camp was
run. Not all the campers were Christian, nor were all the staff, but the
beliefs and morals were evident. YMCA America has a strong emphasis on promoting
good values in kids, those being Caring, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility.
But given this was a camp with kids as young as eight and up to sixteen years
of age, it was important to remind the counsellors that they were working with
young people. Kids and teenagers from all walks of life and backgrounds, and
any of whom could have experienced loss, trauma, grief and be quietly dealing
with problems while attending camp.
“To Save A Life” is about high school student Jake. He has
it all. Good looks, a beautiful girlfriend, captain of the basketball team and
the most popular guy in his school. One ordinary day at school, another student
called Ronald, who is clearly an outcast, walks into school, stands in the
middle of the corridor and pulls out a gun. He slowly raises it in the air, and
shoots the gun a few times. Jake is nearby, recognising Ronald as a former
childhood friend. He approaches Ronald, but it’s in vein, as his troubled
friend turns the gun on himself and takes his own life. Jake sees it up close
and personal, and through a series of flashbacks, we learn he and Ronald were
best friends as kids, but things went astray a few years before this incident.
Feeling remorse and guilt, Jake begins to deal with his feelings and struggles
to keep up the act of being the perfect, happy guy the whole school knew him
as.
The story follows Jake as he processes the loss of a friend,
for whom he feels he should have done more for. Jakes internal journey doesn’t
go unnoticed by his girlfriend Amy and his basketball pals, as the former cool
and outgoing Jake stops going to parties and begins visiting the local Church.
Attending the Youth Group there, Jake begins to ask the questions, but can’t
find the answers straight away. The biggest question he ponders, which is also
the central theme of the movie is, “What do you want your life to be about?”. A
big question to be sure, and a nice twist on the more typical question faced by
teens at the end of high school being what
are you going to do with your life? Jake learns that his new pathway will
sperate him from those he thought were his friends, and bring him closer to
more of the school’s outcasts and loners, showing him the power of doing
something for someone who is clearly struggling with life.
Watching this film at camp before the kids arrived was a
nice way to think about how over the coming ten weeks of summer, how each of us
counsellors could have a positive impact on a young person. In our minds,
summer camp might have seemed like just a fun time, but for some kids it was a
hard, lonely time if they were away from home for the first time, or camp could
have also been refuge for some young people getting away from a less then
desirable home life. I saw summer camp as more than just fun and games under
the sun, as I had worked on a camp for kids with special needs before and had a
year and a half of youth worker experience with severely disengaged young
people. Also, being one of the oldest counsellors on camp at the time, I found
myself being something of a mentor for many of the counsellors there for the
first time, most of which were just shy of twenty and in college.
Over the course of the summer, I would take part in some
YMCA Camp traditions that I’d not experienced at my camp. The religious
influence was there, but not overbearing. The camp had a focus on asking its
campers and counsellors what their relationship with God was like. Which is
also a theme explored in this movie. What I took away from the experience of
watching this film, was that when I returned to Australia that year, determined
to launch my life coaching business and return to Youth Work, was to approach
those roles as a way to have a real impact on the lives of young people. I felt
my first youth work job was missed opportunity, as I didn’t fully understand
the brevity of the work or appreciate the opportunity it presented me with. I
guess I had to return to summer camp one more time to realise that, and this
movie helped reinforce that message.
Returning to Australia with a new take on what it meant to
be a Youth Worker and the responsibility of working with young people who
needed help the most, was driven by the experience I had of working on camp one
last time. For the last couple years of my twenties, I would run local camps in
my area, and foster another generation of leaders. But that was short lived due
to some funding issues, and I then went to work on a youth employment and
education program. This was the job where I would experience the loss of a
client to suicide. That was a tough thing to go through, and I often think
about that young person who was on his own in Australia, under pressure and not
receiving much support. That taught me to never assume a young person was okay
on their own, and even if I only worked with them for an hour or two a week or
fortnight in my role, an impact could still be made in that short time frame. I
learnt the power of working with young people came with me being there for
them; remaining solid, centred and supportive, and also not expecting to have
all the solutions – just listening and showing I cared was often enough.
To Save a Life is a film that has stayed with me since
watching it, and I like to take its messages on board as a reminder of the realities
of working with young people in today’s world. Whichever role I did or whatever
service I worked for, I could make a difference in the life of at least one
young person. And as time has gone by, and I’ve grown more confident and
capable, I found myself being able to have an impact on almost every young
person I crossed paths with, either as a Youth Worker or Life Coach. Because I
learnt the power of being there for each individual young person 100%, as if
they were the only young person I was
there for. Treating each of them this way, meant I was always consistent in my
approach was able to develop skills and abilities that helped me grow into the
professional Helper that I am today.
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