*Brrrrrrrr* g-greetings frrom m-my -11º C lloooon lak-k-ke memoriesss
Three layers of pants, two layers of wool socks, two shirts, a sweater, jacket, winter boots, a touque, gloves, and a scarf, welcome to the outfit of the day; Loon Lake edition. I guess my ultimate conclusion from this 5 day field study was that I am not built to survive moderately cold weather.
Challenging Myself
The three days we had with Pinnacle Pursuits were an amazing opportunity to get to step outside of my comfort zone in ways I usually wouldn’t have access to. One of the things that I think effected me greatly was my experience on the climbing wall. I was stuck at a point on the wall that I could just not get over. My fingers were frozen, my winter boots were slipping, palms sweaty, physical strength was completely zapped, and mentally I was so done and longing to get off the wall. But the amazing guy at the end of the rope would not let me go down. I spent around 15 minutes stuck at that one point on the wall and I felt so bad about holding up the line of people waiting to try the side I was on (again so sorry guys I wanted to come down he would NOT let me). I think after about the 5 minute mark there was no hope left in me that I would ever make it further up the wall, but every time I wanted to quit the guy told me to just focus on the wall and nothing else. He told me that he knew I could do it and that I knew what I needed to do I just had to put my mind to it. I tried SO HARD to climb up and use all my mental strength to conquer the wall, but I failed. We ran out of time and I was at last allowed to return to solid ground (thank god). And all of the sudden the tears that I had been holding in on the wall started to run down my cheeks. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. When trying to figure out why I was crying, I realized quickly that these were not “sad tears”. I think the main reason was because of the exhaustion and physical pain that I was experiencing post-hanging on a wall for 15 minutes. But I also think I was overwhelmed because of the amount of support I was receiving from my peers. And how a man who I had only known for less than an hour had so much faith in me. So special thank you to Brandon because this wouldn’t have happened without him.
My Learnings
As this was a Leadership-themed retreat, we did a lot of talk about leadership and how we could be the best versions of ourselves. One of my favourite activities that we did was creating a personal credo, which I think is more easily described as personal affirmations. I found it hard to get past the barrier of self-doubt when trying to list my strengths or talents. Sometimes it feels wrong to toot one’s own horn per say but in this case that’s exactly what we were trying to do. I found that reflecting on my personal values helped me see what I was actually good at and what my ideal qualities were. We need up making or credos into wallpapers for our devices and I decided to do one for my iPad and one for my phone.
I chose the photos with a certain aesthetic because I actually wanted to enjoy having them be on my screen every time I open my device. Having those affirmations will help me to become the person I want to be and even though the credo may change every now and again, it will help me keep close to my goals.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, I was able to do a lot of learning and self-reflection during my time at Loon Lake. I hope to carry this experience with me throughout the rest of my life and take full advantage of the opportunities that this trip has opened for me. It was a fun trip and I can’t wait to see how it compares to the PLP 10 DISNEYWORLD TRIP!!!!
As always, Brooke.