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Joe (middle) with his two campers all grown up and following
in his footsteps. Greg (left) and myself (right). |
I've been working at the YMCA (the "Y") in Wareham for a couple years now. The "Y" is an organization that is very close to my heart...it's played a big role in my life since I was six years old. Over the years, I've met some amazing people through the "Y"--two in particular that have changed my life. The first was Joe Marciszyn. He was my first summer camp counselor. I've never met a more caring and compassionate person. Even at age 6, I knew I wanted to grow up to be just like him. And I never forgot that. When I turned 18, I started working at the Y and found Joe on Facebook. It had been about 12 years since I had seen him but I wanted to thank him for the influence he had on my life. Since then, Joe and I have stayed in touch and from time to time, he checks up on me to see how things are going. This past spring, I was struggling to adjust to my new boss. Come to find out after talking to Joe, when he left the camp he met me at 14 years ago, he started working at another Y camp in New York. There he had Greg Baker, my current boss, as a camper. I talked to Greg about this crazy coincidence and after all the stories he told me, I realized that Joe had just as much impact on his life as he did on my life. Greg and I really connected after that. He's still a tough boss with extremely high expectations, but after giving him a chance, I've learned so much from him. Long story short, I'd like to write my profile assignment on Greg. I want to talk about the "circle of life" (yes,
The Lion King is my favorite movie) aspect Greg has gone through. He grew up at the Y (much like I did) and looked up to the staff there. He went on to work at the Y, moved up the ranks to a Youth/Teen Director and now people look up to him... like me. It may sound a little corny, but it's close to my heart...
That's awesome how much these people, as well as your experience at the Y has affected you. I work at a YWCA as a lifeguard and it's been an awesome experience. Even though the pool staff is separated from the after school program staff/camp staff, it's like a family so I can see how you've had such a connected-- first as kid and then as a worker. Even though it's pretty late, and you've written the profile, I think it's a really cool idea, especially because your current boss was impacted by your old boss just like you. It's not unrealistic either because as you said, you didn't really like your new boss at first which makes your connection of looking up to the same man pretty important.
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