Towards the end of July, 2020, I had the wonder of going to Kalbarri for my year 9 camp. I was part of group 2, rotation 1, and had the luck to have the wonderful Laura Strentz and Stef as our camp leaders, however, this is not to say that we students had no say in our leadership. Possibly one of the most defining features of this years school camp was the amount of hiking we did, and the amazing experiences we had along the way. Of course, with all that ‘physical activity’, there are going to be people who are going to get injured, either mentally, physically, or in both ways. How did we overcome this? Our group overcame this problem, with an ‘entertainment and morale’ group, who’s job was to keep the groups morals up, and cheer people up. Alongside these people, we had the leadership group (the leaders), the cooking and food group (the foodies), and the hygiene group (the hygienies). Throughout our week at camp, we all shifted through these 4 roles and fulfilled them all to the extent that our abilities allowed us to, some even further than.
Enough about these empty guidelines, onto how I dealt with all of these issues accordingly. I believe that the day that was most impactful on me, was the hike down to four ways, a campsite within the gorge that had paths coming from all four ways, hence the name. The hike was gruelling, with not a cloud in sight, we walked and walked for hours on end, seemingly to no avail. One of the things that kept me going, aside from the prospect of rest and shade, was the people around me, my fellow group 2 members. They were caring, and yet still pushed me to keep going, because of this, I was able to keep going, and carry on, with the many kilograms of camping gear on my back. How does this relate to my leadership and teamwork abilities you may ask? Well, the following day, when we were required to hike up and out of the gorge, up an almost vertical wall. This day I was a leader, and decided, with the help of my group mates, that I should lead the hike. I’ll be honest, on the hike upwards, I was focused on myself, to push myself and keep going upwards. But once we reached the top, I wanted to follow the path set by the leaders before me, and check up on the rest of my group, if there were any problems, and just generally to keep morals up. After this excruciating hike up and out, we finally got to sit in a bus, and drive around to tourist destinations, like the tourists we were meant to be. At these places, while cooking lunch, everyone was tired beyond belief. We ate lunch, took some photos of Nature’s Window, and finally ended the day back in our tents.
This day definitely stands out as the day in which I tried my hardest to lead my group forward, while also making sure everyone was fine.
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