and

There are some boys at camp whose pictures are in the dictionary under jock and I'm not gonna lie: I find them entertaining. They like to disrupt, to talk back, to win at sports, to cheat at sports, to be the centre of attention and to laugh at anything they can. I can't even say that I wouldn't want to be their leader (aside from the fact that I'd be leading Sports Camp and I'm not adept with sports) because they don't fully cross the line of disrespect, defiance or rudeness. One of them looks like David Spade . There are three of them and today I saw something amazing happen with each one of them. The entire camp was on a glorified treasure/scavenger hunt and these boys ended up being the leaders of their groups of 8 to10 younger kids (without any adult leaders). The I-want-to-be-silly-and-not-do-what-I'm-told attitude disappeared and the boys became perfect leaders. They were serious, they were responsible, they were calm and they did a decent job of including their team members in the activities. I was totally impressed that none of them took a power trip like they could have. They didn't try to boast or leave other kids in their dust like they would on the dodgeball court. I'm sure it helped that they were separated but I was still impressed by the change that leadership brought about in these boys. When I saw them come to my station I didn't really know how to deal with the feeling of (gladness?) (joy?) that I felt at seeing the boys turn into cooperative, peaceful children. It's not just that. It's not like I was glad that they weren't being a headache to the counsellors. I was happy because ...well I can't articulate it. I couldn't even find someone to sympathize; there was no way for me to express my surprize and delight over the change in them. oh... such gloriousness.