What a trip 12/07/09
October 15th is a day I will remember for a long time. I agreed to be a chaperone on a day long field trip in my son's 6th grade class. The place we went to was Orenda Springs and the trip was designed as a team building exercise. We were divided into several groups and did various activities throughout the day. It should be noted I went into this trip with open eyes and an open heart...in other words, I did not find out in advance anything we would do that day. I did see pictures from the previous year's trip but again really didn't know what adventure lay ahead of us. What excited me most was it was a way to reconnect with some of my son's classmates that I've known since they were in first grade.

It was a chilly, low 40's kind of a day with mostly cloudy skies and a bit of a breeze. One of the activities involved climbing a tree while harnessed to a rope. There were U-shaped spikes in the tree to assist in climbing. I would estimate the height to be in the 30-35' range. You were climbing to a flat deer platform where you would stand until given a sign when you then would jump off the platform. Someone on the ground had full control of the rope and would slowly bring you down to the ground. It was a free fall in essence. In this same area, also harnessed with a rope, you had the opportunity to be raised off the ground and swing back & forth. A crew of several people on the ground would handle the raising and lowering of each person who did this.

I agreed to be on the crew raising and lowering the rope and it was in the process of doing this that I became empowered. There were a couple of kids who had height issues, both for the swinging back and forth activity and climbing the tree but they still tried it anyway and you could see the feeling in their face at conquering a demon. I've had a fear of heights all my life. When the two activities first started I was saying to myself how happy I was to be pulling rope...ON THE GROUND!! But along the way my thinking started to change and by the time I decided to try climbing the tree most of the kids and other adults knew of my fear so they were encouraging me but carefully encouraging me. I made the climb all the way to the deer platform with an amazing sense of purpose that did conquer my fear. Towards the very end I do admit starting to feel a bit nervous but no where near the freaking out I thought would happen. Once on the platform I looked down and thought to myself "What the heck did I just do?" The ultimate example of mind over matter. At the same time I was climbing my son was on the swinging rope and at the same time I jumped off the platform he started swinging in an attempt to lock arms with me. We missed on the first pass but connected on the second and then slowly started being lowered to ground. About 6' off the ground one of the workers took a picture of the two of us as they did for everyone who did the activity. What a rush that whole experience was. I haven't had a chance to test my heights issue since and should it return I can still say that for at least one day I conquered it. Everyone was quite happy for me.

Another activity later in the afternoon provided another moment to remember. In this one, the kids had to walk across a cable that was connected to two trees. I'd say the length was 6-7 feet and the cable was about 6 inches off the ground. Another dynamic was four of the kids were made up to have disabilities such as blindness, inability to hear, one had a broken arm and the other could not speak. Everyone had to get across the cable before moving on to the next activity. We never did get to another activity because the cable walking took so long, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Once done we went into a tee-pee where we sat on log stumps and talked about what went right and what didn't go right with the exercise. The kids agreed that at first they had trouble organizing themselves to think as a team and the first few that crossed the cable should have remained on the cable (vs jumping off), holding on to the tree with one arm and reaching the other out to make it easier for others to cross, especially those with the disabilities.

The organizer of the activity then tried to bring together all that we had talked about but I could see he was struggling a bit. I could never in my life predict this to happen but at that moment something that happened to me in high school popped into my head (and heart)& I raised my hand to ask if I could share it with the group. I made eye contact with all the children (and adults)and told the story of my junior year in high school when we had to write an original poem in French. We all turned them in the day they were due and the teacher started looking through them. He got to mine, started reading then suddenly stopped and asked why I didn't write something of my own? I politely said that was original to which he asked if I knew what plagiarism was and the penalty for doing so. I have no trouble defending myself but was basically in shock at his reaction because I worked real hard on the assignment and actually was writing a lot of poems and songs at that point in my life. One row over from me sat the smallest kid in the class but one who also had the biggest heart. He raised his hand and told the teacher "If Sully said he wrote this poem, you need to believe him. I believe him". The teacher changed his tune and I wound up getting an "A" on the assignment.

I told everyone in our group that this kid had no idea what would happen to him (good or bad)for raising his hand and basically telling the teacher what he should do. But the lesson learned from this that corresponds to the cable walking activity is this...when put into a difficult decision this kid did the right thing, regardless of consequence he did the right thing sticking up for a classmate. I told the kids in our group there will be many times in all of their lives where they'll find themselves in similar circumstances and all of us adults hope they will also do the right thing.

Once our day of activities was done we all gathered in a large circle. We all put on necklaces made of yarn and all had smaller pieces to hold onto. The small pieces were for each of us to go up to anyone in the group that had an impact on our day. My necklace hangs proudly in my office to forever remind me of what a memorable day this was. There's about 15 ties of small yarn on my necklace.Before we started going up to people to tie the yarn pieces on necklace's the organizer of the cable activity has a tradition of going to the middle of the circle to mention which child had the biggest impact on him that day. "Folks, I've been doing this for quite a while and today is the first day I'm calling an adult forward". His next words were my name and would I come forward. Wow...talk about an honor. He mentioned my sharing of the high school story and how nicely it tied in with our activity.

While we were in the circle we all had to come up with one or two words to sum up what the day meant to us...mine was "life changing".

But the story doesn't stop there. The following week my son brought home a letter from one of the kids that was in our group. She is one of many that I've known since 1st grade. Her note thanked me for being part of their group but specifically for sharing the story about what happened to me in high school. She said, as a result of that, she is taking more initiative now and is more confident to speak in front of class to share ideas and perspective. Warms the heart doesn't it? That note is also in my office where, like the necklace, it will serve as a reminder of the beautiful consequences when we give the best gift of all...our time.