A renowned response in my family to the comment “but I don’t want to!” is “Sometimes in life you have to do things you don’t want to do; it’s called character building”. With that being said, I am not ashamed to admit that the Year 9 Great North Walk was a HUGE character building experience for me. Anyone who knows me is well aware of my love of luxury and comfort; to be honest other than college experiences I have never camped a night in my life. I don’t own a tent and my sleeping bag, well you wouldn’t really say it’s heavy duty.
So, off I went on the Year 9 trek, without any clue as to how to set up a tent or read a map. Thankfully Gavin and Patrick thought it best to give me a walkie-talkie and let me bring up the rear. Without giving a day by day recount of our 120km trek, I would like to share some of the highlights for me (yes, there were some).
Regardless of the ten blisters and my inability to wear shoes for a week after, I was amazed at the strength and motivation of some of our students. I witnessed a different side to our students with many of them showing kind and generous spirits who just got on with the job. With my crew at the back, we quickly discovered that if you continued to talk (the whole time) it made the walking seem much easier and go a lot quicker. We shared useless, unnecessary facts and encouraged each other along the way. A quote from one student “I could be up the front powering ahead and that would be challenging; but I’d prefer to be at the back helping others and carrying their bags for them, that’s a different type of challenge.”
For me that was what the trek was all about, each individual being challenged in their own way. It may have been conquering a hill that looked impossible, adding an extra couple of kilos to your bag to make it easier for someone else, or going without water for the last hour to share it with someone who you knew needed it more than you. Each individual faced their own challenges and by the end of the week successfully overcame them.
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