Chpt 2

Chapter 2 Destiny and Fate?

I knew I needed a summer job and my ideal summer job was one that required me to spend a lot of time outside, having fun and of coarse making money. But I never really thought that job existed. Who would pay someone to have fun? However I was lucky enough to find such a job... as a camp counselor. Like I explained in my interview with the camp director, I loved canoing, kids and being outdoors. Most of my interview was a total lie. In fact I hated canoing and knew very little about it. I'd gone many times as a kid with my family and found it frustrating and boring. Usually our family canoe trips ended in me sitting, bored and upset in the middle of the canoe while my parents pulled my dead weight. I loved kayaking though and from the job description I though I'd be able to do plenty of that as well. I figured that I would suck it up and just do canoing cause that seemed like it was a guaranteed position. Now I'm what one might consider a canoing fanatic! I love canoing. I'm capable at both strokes J and C stroke.

The day I found out I had officially gotten the job as a canoe instructor/camp counselor/ swim dock lifeguard, I was thrilled and promptly began to research canoing on the internet. I went to various websites, many of which explained the theory of canoing and stroke techniques. I printed off charts and iinstructional sheets. Silly right? Absolutely. To learn to canoe properly you need to do it, hear the water splash on the canoe, the current(weak or strong) beneath the hull and the smooth paddle in your hand. The smell of the lake and a cumbersome life jacket on.

I would later throw away those charts and picture print outs, opting for the real thing. But I knew I knew nothing about canoing, so the internet seemed like the best place to start.

Like all big changes, the adventure to camp was one filled with anxiety and excitement. Because I would be working at the swim dock and on the lake at the canoe dock, I needed extra training as a life guard, which I didn't have. So I arrived at camp four days early to receive lifeguard and CPR training along with a dozen other counselors. The training was a strange time, friendships formed fast, but just as quickly dissolved. There were a dozen or so complete strangers, all in early adulthood, from very different places with very different personalities. There was a sorority girl, a Scottish bitch, a party girl from my home state, two awkward Germans, an Australian hunk, a southern belle and me, slightly awkward outstanding swimmer but also shy.

We spent two and a half days learning how to rescue the unconscious, the conscious, children, people who fight back and even mothers with children from drowning. The training itself was incredibly unexciting. The end result.... I'm a lifeguard and Annie had made her first impression on me. I am by nature, in the most horrible way, very vain. I really hate that about myself, but I'm being honest here so whateves. Annie has a fantastic body. Absolutely amazing!!! She might dispute that but I wouldn't, and neither would you if you saw her. We spend three days, in the pool and she wore nothing but a tiny little bikini. Like the song: she wore an itsy bitsy teeny weenie... yeah you know how it goes.

I'm not trying to be crude or vulgar, but my honest first impression of her was to be envious and a little bit turned on. Annie was slightly aloof, not just physically tall but there was a distant look in her big blue eyes. She sent out this vibe that was intimidating, mysterious and at times she seemed out of touch. Annie didn't come off as dumb, like many of the other camp counselor I met. On the contrary she is incredibly intelligent. It was if there was a distraction which no one else saw. I have come to love that look of hers. That look of contemplation, knowing that when she does finally speak, she will say something wonderful. Something spot on, that makes me realize she was paying attention the whole time.