On Friday, I will be leaving work a little early, heading home to pick up some bags and going to tackle a new job I’ve never before encountered: chaperone.

Our church’s youth group is leaving on its annual winter retreat, and I am one of the adult leaders going along for the trip.

I’m getting prepared now.

I remember all too well what our youth group did to our chaperones when we were on church retreats in the not-too-distant past.

For instance, there was the time some friends of mine found out the room number to our least-liked youth leader and crank-called her so many times she actually left her room, banged on their door and swore at them at 3 a.m.

Since she sinned so publicly — and combined with the fact she had flaming red hair — we just started calling her Satan from that point on.

For some odd reason, she quit volunteering not too long after.

On one missions trip, one of our older leaders thought it was sweet to serenade us all with “Rise and Shine” for our wake-up call.

The problem was that this was not sweet; it was annoying and a painful reminder that we were up entirely too early. Despite our complaints, he kept doing it.

So my cabin decided if he liked waking people up through song, he would like to wake up that way, as well. I set the alarm clock on my cell phone for 4 a.m., and we all went across the camp, banged on his cabin’s walls for 10 minutes while singing “Rise and Shine” at the top of our lungs.

I think the message was clear – the next day there was no singing.

Then, there was the summer work camp where a few of the guys thought it would be funny to collect seaweed from the lake and put it in select leaders’ cabins overnight.

They called themselves “The Seaweed Bandits.”

Anyway, when I read the leader responsibilities that said I was to ensure pranks of any kind did not occur, I felt sort of like a hypocrite. I mean, in just a couple of days I’m the one who is supposed to control the mayhem that I may (or may not) have helped cause just a few years before.

I’m supposed to make sure these kids don’t pull any similar shenanigans this weekend, and I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll be good for the job. After all, I know where these kids are coming from.

I’ve sunk to that level.