My NCS Experience

   

Awkward! I didn't know their names, and they didn't know mine, yet there we were holding hands, linking legs, staring cringely at each other from only about 10 center-meters apart. Trying to unwind our bodies out of a manic mess of hands and feet. It was the almighty 'Human Knot' that tied (pun intended) our friendships together. That's when I knew this was going to be the start of something awesome!

Nevertheless, it wasn't all smooth sailing (especially when we tried to get our man-made raft across the freezing lake!) In seriousness, the first day was pretty scary, I remember standing outside the bus, with my dad, not yet wanting to get on, thinking 'who will I sit next to?' 'what if I hate the programme?' But I took a deep breath, pushed my shoulders back and strutted onto the coach like I had no fear in the world. That's when a cloud of relief brushed over me, as I saw a spare seat next to one of my friends from school. However, once we arrived at our Residential at Kingswood, the group of friends I had known from school were 1 person too big to fit in the dorm together, therefore I took it upon myself to buddy up with a new face and share a dorm with a girl called Emily, who was one of the reasons my NCS experience was so great!

I joined NCS to meet new people, so I knew I couldn't snuggle up in my comfort zone. Therefore, I ate my fright for communication, and spoke to another unfamiliar face. This was the moment I knew we made a connection. I had met my doppelganger! Her name was Georgi, and we three (Georgi, Emily and myself) soon became (in the words of Georgi) the 'littest gang' of friends you'll ever meet! Yeah... I don't really understand what that means either! Nevertheless, we became great friends.

Through-out the first week, we took on a number of challenges, from archery to zip wires, to mini Olympics and singing our hearts out to 'Don't worry about a thing' round a campfire. I loved it all! Although if I had to pin point my favorite memory from all these fun activities it would have to be the times when it was clear, we were the 'Dream Team.' When we encouraged people to face their fears, when we worked together to complete tasks, when we reflected on each other's strengths and when we would laugh as though we've been friends for years! Those were the moments I felt as though my NCS goal was complete, yet it was only the first week, so building friendships had only just begun!

Moving on to week two; the week that I probably learnt the most...mainly because many mistakes were made! We stayed in a university, to get the feel of what it might be like to be a student. What sticks in my mind the most from this week was the night Georgi, Emily and I were in-charge of cooking dinner. Whoever thought putting us in-charge was a good idea, must have had a lot of faith in us! Although I'm sure the regret must have started to sink in when the leaders began to hand out packets of crisps, and left-over pasta from the night before, because the dinner we made was atrocious! I mean, unless you like the taste of overcooked slushy, watery rice and under-cooked vegetables... yeah, I don't suppose you do. In addition to that, the Korma curry we made, although I thought it tasted pretty nice, it was only enough to fill up about one person-we had 15 hungry, gradually getting angry, people to feed! I dreaded that the group would hate us for accidentally sabotaging dinner, but luckily, we laughed it off and I, who was in charge of keeping an eye on the rice, learnt that you have to keep stirring it and keep, not one, but both eyes on it at all times!

Putting aside the curry carnage, week 2 involved a lot of indoor classroom based activities, which although it might sound like it should have been boring-it wasn't. I think the change of environment to week 1 made it all the more interesting. Plus, we did go outside, every morning... 8am... when every other group were allowed to get out of bed at 10. To be honest though, I kind of liked it. We, 13 tired teenagers, and 2 extremely enthusiastic leaders, would put on our sporting gear and compete in a game of football or ultimate frisbee, to wake us up. It was so fun! Especially when you're up against a leader and manage to tackle them to the ground! It was accidental of course... Anyway, after a week of charity talks, planning, and learning life skills, our group eventually decided on a charity we wanted to raise money for and how we were going to do it. This leads me onto the last two weeks of NCS-the social action project.