The Ultimate Lifetime Experience

In this five-day journey into the wilderness of my self-learning zone, I have indeed thoroughly understood the meaning of the old Kenyan proverb, “Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable”. This was indeed a great test of my mental strength, my trust of my friends and self-control.

Standing on a wobbly line in mid-air and only holding onto a flimsy wooden plank. That isn’t my idea of fun. At all. But I only realized that when I was in the middle of the challenge. The ground seemed so far away. I pictured myself falling, screaming in mid-air, and the dull thump of a body hitting the rough pebbly ground. But I thought if I fall, my friends would definitely catch me, and so I put all my trust in my friends and summoned up my courage. I would never have believed that I would have accomplished such a feat, without the help and comfort offered by the presence of my friends. But what I didn’t know, was that there would be more challenges, both physical and psychological, to come.

I’m okay with physical challenges, just so as long as they don’t involve heights or bugs. But I’m really not so good at the psychological part. In the stress of the environment, I become very irritated at simple things, especially when people are required to work together. Quarrels happen.

I didn’t think rafting would be that stressful. We just had to tie a couple of barrels to a few sticks, and then paddle along. What’s hard with that? But I was wrong. In the heat of the sun, trying to hold the raft together, everybody was arguing. Whether this knot would hold, whether the raft would sink, whether it would get stuck in the mud… We wouldn’t have done so badly if it wasn’t for the weariness and wariness that was tiring us all out. But the nightmare had just begun. When we started paddling, the raft wouldn’t move. People on opposite sides started blaming each other for not paddling properly, which resulted in people falling in and getting crushed. I yelled inside my head, “People, stop fussing – it’s just making things worse!” Thinking back about it now, I realize that if only we had worked together as a team and had better peer communication, all our problems would have been solved much quicker than we did.

Aesop said that in union there is strength. This short yet simple piece of ancient wisdom has been passed on for hundreds of generations, and I believe the reason for its popularity is its usefulness – which I have just learnt from this five-day trip – teamwork and sportsmanship is the key to overcoming challenges.