Michael's reflections

Well, how to start this… I guess I will start from the beginning. When I was accepted onto this Bridging, Bonding and Linking capitals Leadership course I was unsure of what to expect when I turned up, but writing this post, five days into the course, I have to say it has been one of the best choices I’ve made. The leaders of the course are full of information, inspiration, energy and I am proud to have been given the opportunity to take part! They know how to bring 16 strangers together to perform tasks, work together, communicate and most importantly, to bond together… I have managed to open up to people I have only known less than a week which should be proof enough that these leaders are unique and have achieved massively in their aim of the first week.

I would like to talk about some of the activities we have done which have helped us bond better as people and work together to a common goal, these include plenty of “Ice Breakers” which are just small activities which gets energy up and allows the group to communicate as a team on a more personal level, these Ice breakers are silly little games where people embarrass themselves, but without the embarrassment so to say, it helps build team skills so that other activities seem much less awkward and enable us all to work together comfortably.

Two activities come to mind while on this course, one was a day trip to London, and the other was to plan and work with children during outdoor activities. The trip to London was a tour dedicated to the founder of the YMCA; George Williams. This inspiring and emotional tour of London shown lead us to Westminster Abbey where we saw the window dedicated to World YMCA and YMCA and to George Williams and his plaque, where we were told a short story of how he was just a young man from a farming family who had seven siblings, he being one which was the shortest and weakest, seemingly not destined to achieve much, but when he moved away to London and joined a draping company, who would have known this man would achieve so much by founding the YMCA. After visiting the beautiful window in Westminster Abbey, we moved to the underground and came out at St Pauls Cathedral to visit the crypt of George Williams and where he lays, resting in peace. Overall the Trip was an emotional one and thanks to Ken Montgomery for giving us this tour dedicated to such a legend and such a saviour of young people.

Now, on a more cheery and energetic note, the more energetic activity which was working with the children of our host, Fairthorne YMCA. As a group of mixed people from different parts of Europe and the UK (Northern Ireland, Kosovo and England) we had to all plan activities for young children and what activities we could do the entertain them for half hour after assisting with their main activity. Luckily for us, their main activity was an assault course in which the children ran around a course of various obstacles to get to the end the quickest. As the helpers, we had to help include and make sure that all children were taking part and that they were not left out and alone, I remember one child in particular, older than the rest, quiet and reserved but full of energy at the same time, I was able to talk with him and get him involved in a One vs One race around the assault course, in which I took part, and lost to no surprise. we were thankful to this as it wore down the tremendous amount of energy of which resides within these quirky and fun children, allowing us to apply our previous planned activities which was focused more on teambuilding and competition without a hitch, and to our surprise, the games we “Invented” were common games these children would play so explaining the rules was simple and we all had fun. After our half hour was up, we lead them all back to the sports hall where they met up with the other groups in little fun games, which I describe more of a free for all to get to the best toys first. I ended up getting a Frisbee and playing with four random children, while running from another who was supposed to keep me on my toes (by whacking me with a space hopper) it was hectic to say the least, but I will say this now, I have never had so much fun in my life, playing games with these young, non-judgemental children with all their smiling faces as they manage to throw and catch successfully, the noise, the energy and the amount of laughter was just spectacular.

Now this is the part where I am supposed to close this blog post, I have no idea how to do this, so I am just going to say thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!