Loon lake 2022

Buried deep in the forest, around Mapleridge BC, is Loon Lake. A beautiful lake with a retreat (advance in PLP terms), that I went to on a school trip a few weeks ago. It was a trip full of goal setting, achievements, canoeing, fun, and absolutely zero loons. This blog post is a reflection on the experience.

In PLP when we go away as a class we don’t go on retreats, we go on learning advances. We take the opportunity to do learning through experiences and in new settings outside of school. So this trip that we embarked on a few weeks ago was used as an advance, particularly an advance on our goal setting skills.

Goal Setting

Pretty early on into the trip we got introduced to our reason for being there, other than the teachers wanting us to have a trip after not having one for a while, we were going to work on goals. We started forming our goals in the first couple of days and upon departure from Loon Lake the plan was to be finished that goal. 

My goal was to get out of my comfort zone and broaden my horizons, and I do think that I accomplished this goal by the end of the trip. A good example of my work towards this goal could be my actions at meals. Slowly at meals I started doing things like eating new foods, sitting with new people, talking with new people in an engaged manner, and thinking more positively about the meal situation. Another example would be at a high ropes course we did on an activity day. I am afraid of high ropes courses, so when I was asked if I wanted to do one, I wanted to say no, but I decided in the moment to give it a shot. I was very scared and uncomfortable, but I stuck with it even when I had to climb up a rope ladder (which was extremely difficult), and I made it to the end.

The evidence of this learning and understanding by the end of the trip was a goal book. I have the most important parts of the book (in my opinion) linked below so you can have a read and go through my process in the trip.

Learning Advance Personal Goals

I think that this trip was a really fun way of learning and making new memories while also getting closer to people I wasn’t familiar with. 

Thanks for reading! Please comment and have an overall Good day!