When I got LOCK as one of my electives last year, I was very excited about it as a lot of my friends were going to the camp. I thought I was going to have a blast and was really looking forward to chilling out with all of them. Finally, when we started preparing to go camping, I found that I wasn’t going to be with my friends as much as I thought but they will still be around. When it was camping time, I didn’t really go in with the mindset of fully interacting with everyone, I thought I would do everything with anybody without a fuss but mainly stick to my friendship group. I am happy to say that didn’t do that at all. In fact, over this camp, I felt like I spent more time hanging out with people I never thought I would. I felt like I grew extremely in my collaboration skills, leadership, and self-awareness.

I grew my leadership skills throughout this camp, especially during the amazing race. In the race, I was appointed leader of the red team. We won. It was my job to make sure that all of my team members were heard and to decide on which one sounded the best so we could act on it. I also had to delegate to the rest of my team because sometimes they were more knowledgeable in certain aspects of the race and the camp.

Another capability I grew in was my collaboration. Throughout the whole camp, I worked with numerous people who I wouldn’t have normally. I worked with girls and boys, who were in different year groups to me, and I had fun doing it. When I grouped up with them, I didn’t feel like I was missing out because I wasn’t with my friends, I felt like I was making new ones. This camp helped me to develop this skill further than what I already had, and when I returned from camp, I still used this skill. I also got a few extra friends along the way.

This camp allowed me to become more self-aware. During our daily group reflections, I was able to stray away from the general group responses and dig deeper into how I could personally improve myself.