After spending a camp session surrounded by colorful t-shirts and campers, a color blind Fish Camp counselor truly has a new outlook on life.
Counselors of Camp Schneider in Fish Camp’s Session D surprised their colorblind co-chair with a pair of glasses that change the wavelengths of colors to make it easier for him distinguish them. A video, which has since gone viral on Twitter, was posted showing the counselors wearing colorful Fish Camp shirts while gifting the glasses.
Counselor and industrial distribution sophomore Nico Monroig said a lot of thought and planning went into the gift.
“We were brainstorming gifts for the co-chairs and [one of the counselors] was like ‘Hey, aren’t there glasses that help [people with color blindness] see colors?’ And so we were like doing our research and I’m pretty sure someone called his parents. We were sneaking around,” Monroig said.
In the video, Camp Schneider co-chair and psychology senior Travis Hyatt emotionally reacts to the thoughtful gift his camp gave him, showing them his shaking hands before putting the glasses on. Hyatt said the gift took him by complete surprise.
“Every year, generally counselors get gifts for their chairs and they kind of go off of hints the chair may give them,” said Hyatt. “I made it a point to not share anything or not give any hints … so whenever they handed them to me I couldn’t believe they did it … There’s a lot of heart that went into that gift and the sentiment of it meant so much to me.”
For those involved, Fish Camp is an experience like no other. The gift given to Hyatt by his counselors is just one example that showcases the depth of the relationships built in Fish Camp, one of Texas A&M’s largest student organizations.
“Going to Fish Camp last year, I saw how close they were, so I applied and luckily was picked … I can’t even explain it. They brought us together,” Monroig said.
Counselor and psychology junior Philip Grandjean said the way his co-chairs selected counselors played a large part in the success of their relationships with each other.
“The basis […] of what they were looking for [when we applied] and kind of the theme of the camp was being unapologetically yourself,” Grandjean said. “And so, right off the get go, you could tell the reason they picked counselors was because they were genuine people … We’re all so different people but everyone really embodied that ‘being yourself.’ We meshed really well. A lot of that had to do with the way they picked the counselors.”
Grandjean said that while the antics of the counselors may seem out there to people who are not a part of Fish Camp, ultimately its purpose is to make new freshmen feel accepted at Texas A&M no matter their interests.
“I feel like there’s, not a stigma, but there’s definitely something to get past,” Grandjean said. “And once you get past it, like I’m a very reserved person so my freshman year when I came in with all the yelling and the piercings I was like ‘what is going on?’ and now here I am with a mullet and a septum ring… It’s got a good reason behind it.”
Hyatt said many people do not realize how much work the counselors do to ensure that camp runs smoothly and freshmen feel included. He said although a lot of what they do is fun, it is all done with the goal of making freshmen more comfortable coming in to A&M and that was one thing he wanted all his counselors to always keep in mind. He offered advice for anyone applying to Fish Camp, reminding them that the freshmen are the priority of the camp.
“Kind of look at why you’re applying first… Do it for the right reasons, for the freshmen, and if you love this university and want to share that with others,” Hyatt said.
Grandjean added that people should not let some of the wilder antics of counselors scare them away from applying.
“Mutilating your body is not a requirement,” he said. “We do it to make other people say ‘oh, they look weird so I can be weird, too.’ But it’s definitely not a requirement. I feel like that scares some people.”