It has been so long, and I have experienced so much since the last time we met.
Going back to YMA this year as a counselor was the perfect way for me to spend a good chunk of my rather short summer (yes, I understand ND gets out in May...but I still graduated in June thank you). Again, I had an amazing musical experience playing the entirety of Dvorak's 8th Symphony as well as Haydn's "Surprise Symphony." We also accompanied the first movement of Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Concerto and the second movement of of Bach's A minor concerto (both were slightly let downs as far as accompaniment goes from last year...but oh well). It's definitely times like these at YMA, playing amazing symphonies, that I become momentarily disillusioned from doing anything but playing music...surely, I'll continue to play in symphonies for as long as I can. I also continue to love my newish violin (I will never regret this decision).
As a counselor, however, the musical euphoria was half of the experience. I never realized how much more counselors at YMA had to handle.
At one point, I found myself in a practice room (my violin case unopened in a corner), trying to fix my devilish contact (I later retired to using my glasses), with a bawling camper. She was the stereotypical "that one camper girl," atleast in my judgmental mind. I had already "sized her up" as the one young girl with lots of problems who may or may not have been terrible at the violin.
I am an idiot.
As I tried to calm her down, I noticed that I was just blabbering about my own random crap. I soon shut up and solely listened (silent listening is so underrated). I soon realized that she was probably one of the most mature campers that I had ever met. She completely understood about herself and her own needs/habits better than I probably do at a whopping 18 years of age. As camp went on, she had her highs and lows, but I also went and "listened." And at the end of the day, she told me that I was "super wise and good with my words," but I wish I had turned around and told her how much I had personally learned from her. I was reminded again to never judge and learned the power of listening.
That experience seemed most powerful to me, but YMA 2010 was filled with many other YMA-zing times, and I loved camp that much more as a counselor.
I hope to be back again next year.
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