{"id":65,"date":"2015-11-30T20:52:29","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T20:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/?p=65"},"modified":"2015-11-30T20:52:29","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T20:52:29","slug":"call-me-honey-bear-summer-with-ub-alum-jess-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/2015\/11\/30\/call-me-honey-bear-summer-with-ub-alum-jess-moore\/","title":{"rendered":"“Call Me Honey Bear”: Summer with UB alum Jess Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Written by Jess Moore, M.F.A. ’13<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jessica_Moore\"<\/a>

Jess Moore at Pike’s Peak National Forest.<\/p><\/div>\n

I spent my sum\u00admer with a pseu\u00addo\u00adnym; you can call me HoneyBear.<\/p>\n

For the past 15 years I\u2019ve sat at a desk dili\u00adgently gain\u00ading expe\u00adri\u00adence and cre\u00adat\u00ading solid design solu\u00adtions for a vari\u00adety of posi\u00adtions I\u2019ve had in the pro\u00adfes\u00adsional ser\u00advices indus\u00adtry. I\u2019m work\u00ading on my 10,000 hours, a la Malcolm Gladwell.<\/p>\n

I was laid off, and as these things hap\u00adpen, you start to con\u00adsider how you want to refo\u00adcus your career and what you\u2019re will\u00ading to do to spend your 40 hours. And some\u00adtimes hair-brained oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adties come across your desk. Mine was the oppor\u00adtu\u00adnity to be out\u00adside every\u00adday for 8 weeks nes\u00adtled in the Pike\u2019s Peak National Forest. I was hired on as the pho\u00adtog\u00adra\u00adpher at a Girl Scout\u00a0camp.<\/p>\n

Camp coun\u00adselor was the posi\u00adtion I should have had 20 years ago. I knew that there were going to be inter\u00adest\u00ading chal\u00adlenges (co-workers 2 decades younger, a whop\u00adping two hours off each day, not to men\u00adtion the pay rate). But those chal\u00adlenges don\u2019t hold a flame (or head\u00adlamp) to the experience.<\/p>\n

The first week of camp was just for coun\u00adselors: work\u00adshops on man\u00adag\u00ading the girls (home\u00adsick\u00adness spreads quickly), get\u00adting to know camp, learn\u00ading names (camp names to be spe\u00adcific), and CPR<\/span> and First Aid train\u00ading\u2009\u2014\u2009I called it badge work. Then the girls descended.<\/p>\n

Schedules take on a dif\u00adfer\u00adent light when you immerse into a new rou\u00adtine, new land\u00adscape, and new peo\u00adple. You get to know your\u00adself again. Time slowed down.<\/p>\n

One hundred-or-so girls ages 8\u2009\u2013\u200917 showed up each week for activ\u00adi\u00adties rang\u00ading from canoe\u00ading, barn\u00adyard fun, zip lin\u00ading, rock climb\u00ading, and arts &<\/span> crafts. It was my job to show up and cap\u00adture their excite\u00adment. After years of man\u00adag\u00ading design solu\u00adtions and inter\u00adact\u00ading with C-level execs and mit\u00adi\u00adgat\u00ading their thoughts on design, to sim\u00adply engage in the joy of camp was refreshing.<\/p>\n

Between going from activ\u00adity to activ\u00adity, I hiked. Camp was 880 acres at an ele\u00adva\u00adtion of 8300 feet. I woke up to bright blue skies, pon\u00adderosa pines and moun\u00adtains inter\u00adrupt\u00ading the hori\u00adzon line. The col\u00adors were amaz\u00ading. The sun would set, and the moun\u00adtains turned into lay\u00aders of aubergine with an orange-pink sky. Dusk would come and the stars would come out, span\u00adning a sap\u00adphire col\u00adored\u00a0sky.<\/p>\n

That was my office.<\/p>\n

Beyond tak\u00ading pic\u00adtures, I did get to know my cowork\u00aders; young ladies who are learn\u00ading who they are and fig\u00adur\u00ading out their place in the world. I\u2019ve spent time with this age group as a fac\u00adulty mem\u00adber, but with this group I learned in myself that men\u00adtor\u00ading is a part of my purpose.<\/p>\n

Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout. I spent time in my troop and at GS<\/span> sum\u00admer camps grow\u00ading up; it was a time to be myself, enjoy friends and try some\u00adthing new. JuneBug was a par\u00adent vol\u00adun\u00adteer that came one week called it \u201cthe magic of camp<\/a>.\u201d Sometimes you need to be reminded that it\u2019s OK<\/span> to sit through din\u00adner with a nap\u00adkin hat on your head, or revel in watch\u00ading a room full of girls utterly lose it by play\u00ading \u201cLet It Go,\u201d enjoy tales told around a camp\u00adfire, and sleep\u00ading under the stars. Going to camp as an adult holds the same truths, same self-learning and aware\u00adness as a child, and it\u2019s a cat\u00ada\u00adlyst for change.<\/p>\n

What I chal\u00adlenge you to do is take the odd oppor\u00adtu\u00adnity, do some\u00adthing dif\u00adfer\u00adent and immerse your\u00adself in a dif\u00adfer\u00adent life for a while. Perhaps my jour\u00adney wasn\u2019t as epic as Eat, Pray, Love<\/i>, but it did help to rein\u00advig\u00ado\u00adrate, refine and above all inspire me for my next steps in my career and\u00a0life.<\/p>\n

View Jess’s\u00a0“Best of Camp<\/a>” photos.<\/p>\n

Jess Moore is a graphic designer<\/a>, educator and the current president of AIGA Colorado<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Jess Moore, M.F.A. ’13 I spent my sum\u00admer with a pseu\u00addo\u00adnym; you can call me HoneyBear. For the past 15 years I\u2019ve sat at a desk dili\u00adgently gain\u00ading expe\u00adri\u00adence and cre\u00adat\u00ading solid design solu\u00adtions for a vari\u00adety of posi\u00adtions I\u2019ve had in the pro\u00adfes\u00adsional ser\u00advices indus\u00adtry. I\u2019m work\u00ading on my 10,000 hours, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/casblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}