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. It was a bit of struggle adjusting and adapting 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 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 if the teachers deliberately didn’t disclose the details to shock us but I was definitely not expecting the facilities and activities that we had when we got to the location. We were told in the itinerary that a week would be spent on a remote farm and some water based activity would occur at the lake, and another week would be spent camping in a forest. We were told that phones would be useless since we would have no reception, but I’m pretty sure we all brought them anyway. We were also told not to bring any pocket knives but I’m glad my friend B did because we would have been screwed if he didn’t bring his flint/steel and pocket knife.

I guess I shouldn’t have expected the farm accommodations to be like the usual cottage sort of house/ airbnb that my family would get during the holidays. It didn’t make sense that a cottage would have enough space for 30 kids. Still, I didn’t expect to sleep in a barn. Even though it was clean I didn’t know how to feel about it when we were told to set up our sleeping bags in our designated barn. They separated us into 2 barns for boys and girls and we had Ms. A with us in our barn and Mr. C in the other barn. Even though I wasn’t too happy with the barn situation I wasn’t expecting some of the other girls to be complaining to Ms. A and demanding better sleeping arrangements. There weren’t any actual lights in the barn and the outhouse thing we had to use was kind of dark and didn’t have any hot water so I kind of agreed this was unpleasant but secretly I was glad someone else was complaining and not me. It wasn’t nice to shower in the cold and sort of dark open shower space and I had to shower in the morning because I didn’t want to sleep in wet hair and make my sleeping bag damp. It was also so weird not being able to go onto TikTok and Insta at the end of the day and wind down. I fell asleep because I was bored and it was also weird being conscious of everyone else around me. I felt like I had no privacy.

Even though this was a challenge to adapt to, I found myself actually enjoying waking up the next day to the sound of chickens clucking around and seeing the sun start to appear. I have never actually woken up at dawn before and I think not being able to use my phone really helped me connect with nature. During the first week we basically just did a lot of planting and farm work. It was kind of cool to feed the animals and follow the farm people around to help them. I felt like I was earning the food I ate at the end of the day and it was really fulfilling. I also was so tired at the end of the day I fell asleep right away. I think it’s the same for everyone because when it was bedtime nobody was talking or complaining anymore. I heard a few girls say they wished they could take pictures of this experience. I do too, but I would like to take pictures of the animals. I didn’t know cows and horses were actually so big! They were kinda scary. I always thought chickens were mean but I didn’t know they actually like to be petted.

The water activity we had to do was kind of fun. We basically just kayaked across the lake to reach the forest area we would be camping in for the second week. The camping part was the most interesting and probably also the most disastrous part. The camping instructor showed us how to light a fire, but let's be honest nobody could do it after just watching it once and 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 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. Even though B lent me his pocketknife it was still hard to find logs and peel off the wet parts. He also struggled because the wood was mostly damp so it felt like forever to get the fire going and we were so tired and hungry. D 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 just didn’t know how to.

Even though we were used to little electricity and light from the farm, I realized very quickly that we would have zero light once night hit us. I suggested to my team we should probably light a fire and start cooking dinner before we weren’t able to see anything. Surprisingly, everyone agreed. I actually felt like a leader for once and delegated tasks for the cooking since I usually cook at home. 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 super hungry and tired because nobody complained even though it was dark 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.