From 8th to 28th of April this year I was lucky enough to be offered a scholarship to go on the Outward Bound School Leaders course and words cannot describe just how amazing this experience was.

Outward Bound is a 21 day course where you are put with a group of 14 people who don't know each other (they call this your watch) and you do a whole bunch of challenges that are aimed to push you physically, mentally and emotionally in the hope that by the end of it you’ll be a better person.

I decided to go on Outward Bound mostly because I wanted to find out more about myself. That includes things like who I am away from routine and everything familiar and how I act under stress and with different groups of people. I also wanted to build confidence by exploring my limits and also to be challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone. And of course, I wanted to grow and develop my style of leadership.

The most challenging experience for me was probably the second day of our sailing expedition when we'd been rowing from 7am that morning until 9pm that night and we were hungry and tired and so happy because we thought we'd finally finished for the day. However, that’s when our instructors started arguing over who was “going to do it.” Of course, we all started getting a bit nervous by this and it turned out to be for a good reason- the instructors had decided we were going to anchor the boat that night. 

This took us over two hours to complete, and seven attempts. By the fifth attempt after being told “nope not good enough, go do it again” I think many of us were on the verge of tears. After finishing at 11.11pm, we finally got to sleep at one o'clock that night and then had to wake up at five the next morning for another gruelling day of rowing. However, despite the discomfort I felt at the time, I look back on this experience now and am so glad we did it because that feeling we all got when we finally anchored isn't something that can be easily replicated and it really brought us together as a group.

Another really special moment was on the second day of our tramp when we got up at five and climbed to the top of Mt Sunday and watched the sunrise while having breakfast. It was absolutely stunning! Other highlights include massage trains, card games, deep chats, inside jokes, awesome food, incredible friendships, sing-alongs under the stars, campfires, laughter and peanut butter.

Through this experience, I learnt that I am so much more capable than I thought. I learnt that there is always more in you and the greatest barrier to success is yourself. I know we get told things like this a lot but Outward Bound demonstrated this to me in one of the most rewarding ways possible.

I also learnt to appreciate the small things- on the second night we slept on the floor on these hard blue mats and we were all complaining, but it made us seriously appreciate our beds back at base which we’d complained about as well the day before. Another thing I learnt was about the power of a group- we, Cobham watch, accomplished so much during those 21 days, things that I never would have been able to before by myself. This was all due to the motivation, the leadership among the group and the support we all had for each other. I am now a full believer that when a group of people work together properly, they really can do anything.

Outward Bound is hands down one of the best things I have ever done and I would seriously recommend it! I would like to thank the Otago Community Trust for sponsoring me to go on this adventure and for the support of the school, who were the ones who made it all possible.