iD Tech Camp... More Like #bestjobever

So as I mentioned in a previous post of two... I have been working at iD Tech Camp as an instructor this summer. Specifically, in Columbus at OSU. And my name for the past 2 months has been Eevee.

I drew this Eevee as part of my Pokemon a Day drawings, but I also included it on my students' take-home USBs the last week of camp:

So this summer has been super fun. I have made so many great memories and met all kinds of great people this summer. After teaching for just this short period of time, it has really helped me to realize the most important thing to me. It made me realize that the one thing I want to do more than anything else is make a difference and help other people better themselves and gain something from what I have to offer.

I never thought that teaching would be something I would be interested in... until I actually tried it out. Granted, some of the programs I learned were a bit difficult at first, but over time, I was able to really understand them and help the students learn how to use them. It made me realize that I really want to teach students in this age group (about 7 to 18) how to learn aspects of video game design early on. I feel like it is a great opportunity and I want more people to take this opportunity for themselves, or their children, to learn at an early age.

So one of the weeks, I was sent to St. Edward's University in Austin, TX to teach Torchlight II, since they needed someone and I was initially off that week. And so it was one of my students' birthdays the last day of camp. She was a really sweet student and was always working super hard. So as a little present, I drew the below image for her:

Additionally, while I was in Texas, we celebrated 4th of July on our final day of that week:

And so the last week at camp was admittedly one of my favorite weeks (close behind my favorite, which was the second to last week). During that week, I had some super awesome students, all being over-nighters. And so the same night that they had a Smash Bros tournament, I was drawing a bunch of the students. Two of my students even posed for me. But then they turned it around and drew me! Plus some other little things. And that is on the dry erase board below:

Although, my favorite week was the second to last week, as I mentioned. That was the week where I really connected with the campers earlier in the week (it helped that there were a few returners from previous weeks). And so friendships started to form. That was when I really started to realize that the campers are not just students of mine, but they're so much like us that they are friends. I mean it's not like I've been treating them differently than I treat my friends, it's just that I didn't really realize this until later. This is the week that I started to realize that teaching is something I want to seriously consider as a profession in my future. That was also the week that the campers decided to dump a water bucket over my head. It's a camp thing. At the end of the week, the campers get to choose, via raffle, which instructor they want to pie in the face, and which instructor they want to dump a bucket of water over their head. That was the week I was chosen, and it was a lot more enjoyable than it sounds.

I think it was about the third week in that I was ambushed by one of my students with the shaving cream pie though. He pied my director, but he then decided to hit me with the leftovers. This was how that ended:

And so, overall, I want to recommend iD Tech Camps for every person that can afford to go. It is a great experience and I have heard multiple students say that it is the best week of their entire summer, the years that they do go. I can't begin to explain how much I wish I could have had that when I was that age.

And now starts the next chapter of my life: senior year of CCAD, and then there will be my venturing into the real world after that. I plan to go ahead and reapply to work with iD Tech Camps for summers to come, but it has really helped me realize that I may want to teach more than just during the summer. I may want to consider teaching during the school year once I have graduated. Who knows?

But anyway, iD Tech is great. One of the only full-time jobs I have had, but so far, it has definitely been the best. It will be hard to find something out there more fun than hanging out with kids, playing video games, and teaching kids how to make video games. But we'll see what the future brings!

Thanks for reading this super long post. Now you know what I've been up to. I plan to post a lot more art from what I've been working on, but this was mostly a "life" post.