Take the Lead

ALEXANDRA MCROBERT

            What is the school day, or “hamburger,” as Lyndon Kirkley once analogized, without the extracurricular, or “relish”? School is nothing without the extracurricular aspects, and the students who make it all happen.

            On September 25th, 40 of North Toronto’s student leaders boarded a school bus and spent three hours on the road together to Camp Glen Bernard. This trip, that is, Leadership Weekend, was organized by Alex Walker, Paula Sanderson, and Emily Corbett, with help from Mrs. Whelan and Mrs. Rough.

            “First you get to know each other,” started Paula on the first night, “then you get to trust each other, and then you get to kill each other.”

            Before long we were done the first set   of bonding exercises, and there was no longer any shame. What I mean is, people who had never talked before got personal. Stories began to come out, mostly about funny experiences and summer traveling…  

            By the end of the weekend, everyone was so comfortable with one another that they could be entirely themselves. Geoff Handley bit someone’s sock in an attempt to rip it off during Sock Wars. (This wasn’t actually witnessed during the weekend but was spotted on Facebook at the back of a picture). Amber Day put a Pringles tin on her arm and ran around as a hook man. James Bok almost fell onto the ground while crowd surfing.

            Those who had stage fright lip synced shirtless. I was afraid of heights and managed to get myself on a log high up in the air (although I didn’t manage to cross it, there’s always next year!) 

            Every student on the trip portrayed leadership qualities at some point, whether it was during the colour battle, the thinking hats exercise, or the productive club meetings.

            The most important part of the trip, above all, was learning how to be a leader. Leading, taking charge, listening to what others had to say, kiss-of-death, and crowd surfing were all part of it: Leadership Weekend 2008.