Self-reflection Assignment
Sometimes life presents us with unique opportunities which can contribute to the way we accept the world around us, can make us better specialists in a particular task, can teach us some very important skills, and sometimes may even change or impact our entire perception of a particular phenomenon or processes. That is something that has happened to me not long ago. I was privileged to participate in one of the very interesting and evolving outdoor volunteer projects in Ecuador. This experience has taught me the importance of putting my heart and soul into what I am doing, and to develop a number of practical qualities and skills that I believe would make a successful outdoor leader.
To begin with, I would like to share a short story with the audience describing my road to such important revelations in my life. That morning I was about to fall asleep when I was finishing packing my hiking bag. The clock showed extreme numbers of one fifty-eight in the morning. My flight to Ecuador was in about two hours. The decision to make this trip to a rather remote country came not unexpectedly; I always wanted to go to a different country being motivated by some exalted ideas; in addition, there were many friends of mine who also joined this trip.
And still, while my driving to the airport two contradictory feelings were fighting in me: the desire to just stay at home, and enjoy my leisure time in a relaxing atmosphere rather than to spend two weeks with painstaking labor, and the motivation to help people who really need my assistance, and to do so together with my friends.
On our arrival to the capital of the country, we made an hour bus ride to the place of our destination in the community in Chismaute; this was our sports project’s site. The preschool children with their loud greetings of “hola” became one of the brightest of my emotions during this day. Here, the picture was much different from what I saw in Quito, the capital of the country: the place was a very rural part, and this could be seen in everything around including the way people were dressed, the way they talked, and even the way they thought. The difference was so mind-blowing that I could barely believe that these people were from the same country.
It was one of the most unexpected difficulties for me, and still, it did not spoil my impressions as I was excited about the project, about the team, about everything we did, and how we did it. I was deeply moved by the local children who were trying to use their every opportunity just to approach us and to talk to us. I made many friends with the children, took endless amounts of pictures with them, and communicated through elaborate body language.
Claver, a shy and timid boy will always stay in my heart. Initially, he stood from afar, made seldom eye contact, and whenever I tried to talk to him, he ran away. However, with the duration of time, we became really close, and I learned some sad facts about his life; being ten years old he was as small as a preschooler due to malnutrition. This hardworking boy had to spend thirty minutes walking to school under any weather conditions.
I learned he had three more children in his family that his parents had to feed, but their family was so poor that only two children could attend school. His experience was something really moving. I really understood that our sports project would help these children for whom we were working hard to help find a better chance in their lives; inspired by this fact I was working very hard to do my best in helping these sincere and smiling people.
To say that I was deeply struck by what I saw on this trip means to say nothing. I saw dramatic differences between the lives of people in rich countries and third-world ones. One thing that I will always remember about this trip is Claver’s sincere smile that he had despite all the troubles and hardships. Of course, I learned a lot of important lessons concerning leadership, and sports event organizing which would definitely benefit me in the future as I plan to continue our “relationships” with sport in my life, and it benefits me even now as I own precious experience helping me in showing such important leader’s qualities as being a reliable person to head different departments in organizing sports projects. In particular, I managed to acquire such valuable leadership qualities as being reliable and responsible, being positive, charismatic, dedicated, open, creative, assertive, and positive.
I believe that all of these inner “riches” will make me a valuable person to pursue ambitious goals in the area of sports arrangements. All in all, I learned that I should put my heart and soul into the things I am doing as only in such case my success will come soon and will be really astounding. In addition, I realized that you should like what you do and who you do it with because that will really be your miraculous chariot bringing you rapidly to the elevations of success you could only dream about before.