Tracy

Reflection on the "Grounding: Building Core Leadership Skills Through Doing" Electives Trip

I think the trip was fun now that I am home and now I have the time to reflect on the experience. I struggled to adjust and adapt to the new environments we were in, though I think having friends and doing this with classmates made it more fun than if I were to go with my parents. I felt like a fish out of water, but seeing my peers and friends struggle as well made me feel better about myself. I learned more about my friends and classmates and saw different sides of them than I would normally at school or online. I think I’ve also learned a lot about myself and how I view nature and I definitely have a new appreciation for the technology and comforts I have at home now.

I’m not sure why the teachers told us not to bring certain things for the camping trip because I believed some of these things to be necessary. We were told not to bring our phones. We wouldn’t be needing them as there will be teachers and camp staff around if we needed anything. We’re also going out of the city so there would be no receptions and our phones would be useless anyway. But still I’m pretty sure we all brought them anyway. At least I did. We were also told not to bring any pocket knives for safety reasons but I’m glad my friend B did because that was something we needed to cut twigs and wood. We would have been screwed if he didn’t bring his flint/steel because their fire making instructions were impossible to follow. I thought they would at least provide us with camping tools but turns out they didn’t really, so the banned items list confused me.

The fire and cooking part was disastrous but also a fun challenge. The camping instructor showed us how to light a fire, but let's be honest nobody could do it after just watching it once. I was lucky B used to be a boy scout and knew how to do these things and I had some experience cooking so this task wasn’t too difficult. We had to split up into teams to tackle the evening tasks. B and I were in charge of the fire, D was in charge of filtering water for us and E was in charge of setting up the tent with G. We didn’t really appoint a leader or assign these tasks, we kind of just decided what was needed and volunteered for it. We all struggled. I had a hard time finding dry branches and kept getting splinters. We weren’t given any utensils to eat with so we all deliberated on how to eat our food. A few people said we’d eat with our hands but I mentioned we didn’t have any way to wash our hands after touching dirt all day. I suggested making chopsticks from twigs and sterilizing it in the fire. The whole group agreed it was a good idea and I guess I became the leader of cooking. That felt pretty good and I think I even earned the respect from my teammates.

Even though B lent me his pocketknife it was still hard to find logs and peel off the wet parts. The camp staff had larger machete knives but they wouldn’t let us use it, and only helped out each group a little. B told us that wasn’t enough wood to keep a fire going so he just had to keep looking for more. I felt bad watching him struggle because the wood was mostly damp so it felt like forever to get the fire going. I wish I could help him but we only had one pocket knife between the whole team and I really wondered how people even made fires or camped outdoors if they didn’t have tools or technology like a pocket knife.

D also didn’t have a good time because he said his back hurt from bending over the lake and he almost fell in so his feet and shoes were wet. E and G were arguing about setting up the tent because it kept falling over and didn’t come with instructions. I think it would have been great if I could just watch a video or even ask AITA how to do this stuff because I didn’t know how to, but we were all able to figure things out via trial and error so that was a new experience for me.

As time went by setting up our mini camp, I realized very quickly that we would have zero light once night hit us. We didn’t have flashlights or anything because once again it was on the list of prohibited items to bring. So I started panicking about the lack of light. I suggested to my team we should probably prioritize lighting a fire no matter what and start cooking dinner before we weren’t able to see anything. We didn’t even have a portable stove or anything. Everyone agreed. Because we started cooking first, one of the camp instructors came over to help us, I guess to make sure we cooked everything properly and didn’t get food poisoning. The food was kind of simple, baked potatoes that G wrapped with foil and put into the fire. We didn’t have any dietary restrictions so we picked pork for our protein and the instructor showed us how to make a soup over the fire with veggies inside so we had kind of a stew. It was simple, but surprisingly tasty. I think we were all just super hungry and tired because nobody complained about the food or even how dark it was when we ate.

I felt like I took on more of a leadership role in the camping part of the trip, with the fire lighting and the cooking. I think my group listened to me because I explained my points and made sense of our situation, and also didn’t tell people what to do. I asked which tasks they would like to take on and I think that really helped because I wasn’t close friends with everyone and I think it might have caused a problem if I just told people what to do. I think this was a fun experience and I learned a lot about working with each other and solving issues together.