RYLA Speech

Together as one. Inspirational. Motivational. Lifechanging. Inner voice. Confidence. Patience. OAR. Strength. Leadership. Personal growth and development. Respect. Goals. Life lessons. Meaning maker. ATL. Relationships. Trust. Dream. Fellowship of Giants. Change. Peace. Born this way. GROW. Memories. Friendships. Hope.

These key words sum up my RYLA 2013 experience the best. After being nominated for RYLA I wasn’t too sure what to expect from the program. I’d heard of Rotary and all the goodness they do in the community but RYLA – I’d never come across. I was a tad nervous, yet excited to say the least as I headed out to Camp Epworth on April 14th. I enjoy being put in a situation where nobody knows anyone, and that's pretty much how the first hour or two of RYLA was. Upon arriving I was greeted immediately by Rotarians at the entrance followed by two other RYLA participants, whom each gave me a high five and a handshake. I felt like i was in the right place within the first five minutes of being there. It felt great!

A welcome and introduction followed as well as a few leadership workshops. One of the first questions we were asked was ‘what can I give to RYLA and what I want to get from RYLA? I really did have to think about these both. I wrote down that I could offer certain leadership skills, positive energy and humour. I also wrote that I hoped to gain confidence and proferssional development in certain areas as what I was hoping to get, as well as being an effective leader.

After lunch we were advised to get into our 'rubix cube' colours aka orange, blue, green, red, white and yellow. Small initiatives and name games kick started the afternoon followed by the creation of our groups, which then led to a small team building challenge and a whole group challenge. Early evening brought on Rock & Roll. A laugh no doubt by most, at the first thought of this and very much out of MY comfort zone. I have a personal bubble, am quite uncoordinated but here i was having to dance with someone i'd only just met, and in front of many others. But it was great fun – and we all bonded really well – who’d have thought we’d only met a few hours earlier. I knew that evening as I lay in my bed reflecting on the day that it really was going to be a great week.

Monday arrived, and a hearty breakfast we did have, followed by public speaking – yes we had to say two speeches in front of our peers. It was a good challenge and loved the support we all gave each other. After lunch we headed out to high ropes. For me, high ropes is where i really felt our team 'clicked'. I was just blown away by how well we got on, the support and encouragement we had for each other and just the fear and excitement in all our faces throughout the afternoon. We really did bond. Each of us had our own strengths and different confidence levels. Our instructor also saw this and set challenges for each of us according to our ability. My most memorable moment at high ropes was when i went up the 'multi vine' blind folded with Tori behind me. I accepted the challenge to be blindflded as i knew it would test my limits and confidence as well as have to rely solely on my team members below me, and Tori to the side of me. I remember so clearly this challenge, i was so nervous. Each step and movement i took i had to listen to the team calling out below. The idea of multivine is to grab the rope in front of you and hand/throw it to the next person in line. For me, a challenge itself was reaching the rope in front 'blinded' but also being able to pass it to Tori without it swinging all over the place. This activity couldn't have made me feel more proud to be a red team member. I successfully walked across the wire completely blindfolded, grabbing all ropes and throwing them to Tori (all but one swung haywire), and i simply could not have done this without the help from the rest of the red team.

Following our jam packed day of public speaking and high ropes aka team bonding, we had another challenge post dinner. RYLA Masterchef 2013... Something new for the programme and it sure was a hit! Each group member was given a task to complete and together as a group the idea was to create a meal for the judges, a creative name, a poster, and it needed to be 'sold' to the guests by a waiter/waitress. This was a fun activity that took place over a couple of hours and each team created very different ideas, posters and 'sold' there meal with either humour or seriousness. The judging panel found it hard to declare a winner, so each category had different winners.

Tuesday arrived and brought rain, a lot of it! At 9am the red team headed to the lake and built a raft, and then raced it! It was a lot of fun, and yes we got very wet. Following this activity, we met with three past RYLARIANs who discussed ‘what does a leader mean to me’ with us all. We presented our charts with the rest of the group later that afternoon. The final task of the ‘emerging leaders day’ activities was having a discussion about meetings. Why they are important, how to run one and how to be a valuable member of a meeting. I learnt a lot in this activity as did the rest of my team. That evening speeches were conducted and personality profiling also occurred. This was quite a fun activity and there were a lot of laughs and discussion.

Day four came and went just as fast as Tuesday had. Today we were able to leave camp and head back into the ‘real world’. We were all separated and headed to meet different CEO’s. I met with the CEO of Child Matters. It was such an inspiring talk and ‘interview’ we had with Anthea. Late afternoon we debriefed over our day and presented our interviews to the rest of the group. It was amazing how successful each ‘leader’ was but each had a different style of leadership. Late evening we had some free time, touch was played, origami paper cranes were made – with the discussion of Peace, and Poker and singing also occurred.

Thursday brought adventure, mud, water, fear, height, climbing and caving to the day. We all trekked on out to Waitomo where we spent a day working in different teams, caving, abseiling, rock climbing and team bonding. Another amazing day well spent and it was good to mix up the teams and have a new variety of personalities and styles of leading.

Leadership really is reflected through attitude and that was shown to me the most. I saw a completely different side to leadership. I understand being a leader is someone who teaches, or funnily enough 'leads', but i have now discovered it's not all about that. It's about self-efficacy, believing in yourself, and having the confidence in yourself and not just in others to succeed. Also simple thinking strategies, and behaviour has so much impact on who you are as a person. It wasn't until i completed this course that i realised i was missing a big part of leadership. We learnt so many valuable lessons through team building, masterchef, high ropes and initiatives, meetings, speeches and just bonding time through new games and songs. Having being nominated by someone who saw great potential in me but also saw that i lacked so much confidence. I know now i have gained SO much from this experience and look forward to pursuing a great career in leadership and teaching.

Reflecting over the journey RYLA had given me. The people I had met. The friendships I now have for life. The lessons I was taught. The fun I had and of course all the memories and good times. Because of RYLA I was able to confidently coach a high school hockey team this year, as well as continue tutoring for a while, take on greater responsibility in my job, as well as join Rotaract. I have become more confident in my teaching and association with my peers. Personal goals of my own since RYLA are to continue to aim high, and continue to strive forward making a difference in the community I live in.

The world is so big, there are so many different opportunities out there, still many people yet to meet and so much more to learn. I am so thankful for the people of Rotary here today as well as RYLA who've helped put my foot in the door to begin my next chapter of life with confidence and hope.