About a year and a half ago, as I was nearing the completion of my college degree, I faced the reality of beginning my true adult life and was largely overwhelmed by the idea of it all. I surfed online job boards and read a dizzying number of job descriptions until I came across a posting for a place called the Princeton-Blairstown Center (PBC).
“Wait a second, I know that place,” I thought as I opened the posting and recalled the two three-day trips I’d taken to PBC while in high school. Those trips had been such positive experiences for my peers and me that we continued to talk about them long afterwards. The shared group experiences of those trips allowed for great opportunities to learn about each other and work better together back in the classroom. Powered perhaps more by nostalgia than anything else, I sent in an application to be a Summer Bridge facilitator for my last summer before finishing my undergraduate degree in Adventure Education.
I was offered the job, and a few months later I arrived at PBC excited to meet my coworkers and begin training for the coming summer. That summer was the final year of the hybrid Summer Bridge program, which brought Summer Bridge from Blairstown to the communities we serve and delivered the program in local schools or community parks from Monday through Thursday. Then, at the end of the week, the kids traveled to Blairstown for a day of adventure, hiking, canoeing, and climbing.
One week, I had a participant named Carmen, who spent Monday through Thursday pretending to be uninterested and bored. But on Friday, while at the PBC campus, something changed. She chose to let people see her having fun and enjoying herself. Once she allowed herself to be seen, a capable and natural leader emerged. Maybe it was being in the forest and out of Trenton, New Jersey. Maybe she was tired of keeping up appearances. Or maybe a week of learning social-emotional skills equipped her to view and interact with her world differently. Whatever the root of the change, she went back home more comfortable being herself and more capable of productively engaging with others.
That summer was hard, but when I stepped back and looked at all we had accomplished, I was proud of my work. I was able to see the difference that PBC made in the lives of Carmen and all the other kids who had grown and changed for the better.
After completing my degree, I returned to PBC to work as a seasonal facilitator for the 2023 season and had the opportunity to see Carmen return to PBC. This time, while I was not her facilitator, I witnessed her learning even more new skills. The previously uninterested girl I had met the year before, who sat by herself or gossiped rather than allowing herself to have fun, was no more. From day one, she was a loud voice full of excitement, and she no longer cared what others thought of her enthusiasm for PBC. When I saw that growth, I had to smile.
There have been many days when I finished work with a smile because I spent a day helping children grow into the best versions of themselves through play and exploration. When kids have the opportunity to play, they have the opportunity to learn and grow. That is not only fun, but it is beautiful too.
Cooper Metzger joined the Princeton-Blairstown Center in 2022 as a member of the summer staff. He returned in early 2023 to complete an internship and became an experiential education facilitator, moving into a senior facilitator role in March of 2024. He holds a degree in Adventure Education from Plymouth State University. An avid climber and outdoorsman, Cooper has worked as a zipline tour guide at Catamount Ski Area and with youth at Camp Speers. He is a certified Wilderness First Responder and ACCT Level II practitioner as well as a Leave No Trace Trainer.
