Speaking in Unity

The year is 2002.

I'm a senior at Escuela Campo Alegre high school (in Caracas, Venezuela) and my entire class is travelling to a local town a few hours away for a weekend "survival trip".?

Survival trips are a part of our school's tradition. A few weeks before graduation, senior students go on a camping-like trip where they are met with nature's elements (cold, heat, rain) and asked to perform physically challenging activities to test (and improve) physical and mental toughness.?

One of the activities we're asked to embark on during my class trip is a 3-hour mountain climb in the heat...with some of us carrying other students on our backs.

Thanks to my tall stature, I'm chosen to be one of the carriers (of a shorter, more petite female classmate).?

Lucky me.?

By hour one, I'm panting and unamused -- similar to my classmates. As I'm about to stop climbing and look for a way down (because this Nigerian gal has nothing to prove and is ready to go home, muchas gracias), something funny happens.

Our stern-faced guide, a 50+ Venezuelan mountaineering instructor, says "Perhaps, this is too much for you."

To my surprise, my classmates (who are sweating and panting from exhaustion) reply back "No Sir. This is not too much for us."

Huh? What are you people saying? I'm hot and hungry folks. This seems like a great time to wrap this up.?

While deep in thought, I hear our guide yell this time?"Are you sure? Perhaps, this is too much for you!"

Like a chorus, my classmates shout "No Sir! This is not too much for us."

As if our guide enjoys taunting us, he yells for the third time "Are you really, really sure? Perhaps, this is too much for you!"

My classmates, again in unison as they continue climbing, yell back, "No Sir! This is not too much for us!!"

Our guide looks at us, smiles, and continues up the mountain in silence.

Outcome:

Our class proceeds up the mountain, cheering each other on, and when we make it to the top everyone falls down in joy and hugs each other, acknowledging that the challenge was indeed not too much for us.

Lessons I Learned:

1.There is Strength in Numbers. It really doesn't pay to do anything alone - be it managing a project or leading a team or successfully raising a child (which I'm now intimately familiar with since recently becoming a mom to my beautiful baby girl). It's harder to do things alone. It's costlier (on the body and mind) to do things alone. Support is necessary. Support systems matter.?I thank God for my personal and professional support systems.

2. Know Thyself. I could pretend and tell you that after the experience on our class survival trip I became a lover of climbing mountains - that would be a lie. I don't enjoy it or plan to recreate that particular experience anytime soon. That said, I love the lesson I learned from the experience and have applied it in multiple situations afterwards where I engaged the help of support systems (team members, family, friends) to achieve different personal and professional project goals.

3. Embrace The Suck. Life promises to offer experiences that rock and others that suck. The sooner we make peace with that, the sooner we can focus on building our resilience to successfully thrive regardless of if we're going through a wonderfully 'rocking' or an annoyingly 'sucking' experience. Disclaimer: I'm not saying it will always be easy to embrace the suck; what I'm saying is that there's always something valuable to get from it.

We live and we learn.

Until the next story :)

Nwanyibuife Adaeze Ugwoeje

#Speak #Resilience #TeamWork