Morning:
Why did I think it was a good idea to go exploring with 12 kids in caves and around cliffs? I don’t think my heart rate has stayed so elevated for such an extended period of time. The worst moment was when, led by me, 12 students entered the cave and after climbing out a different exit, I could only count 11 students. By golly I thought I had screwed up bigtime! Turns out one of the kids up the back was feeling ill and so she and a parent told Barry that they weren’t going into the cave. Here was me thinking they’d climbed in a cubby hole and quietly fallen off a cliff.
But its all good. Everyone survived and no-one lost their looking after kids privileges.
Afternoon:
Enter the most determined child ever! The surprising thing about today’s subject is the fact that she is a girl. I am rarely inspired by primary school girls. She was loud and vastly annoying. So how it happened was this:
Dave and I are chilling at the top of the abseiling tower letting kids off when she came shaking her way through the cubby hole bawling her eyes out. She was TERRIFIED! It took a decent 5 minutes to get her off the ladder and sitting on the platform floor. And then finally finally we get her to stand up. Dave is being sooo encouraging and trying to get her to let go of the metal bar she was clinging to. She wasn’t having a bar of it (haha get it?) so she would let go for 2 seconds and grasp it again. Dave was very patient. Because there was no chance of her stepping away from the bar Dave finally said “you have done so well but given that you aren’t comfortable letting go of the bar I think we will have to be happy with how far you have gotten and maybe give abseiling a miss.” As soon as he said that she completely let go of the bar and looked at ease without it. Dave was shocked and agreed to keep going with her attempt to abseil. The second he agreed to keep going she clung back onto the bar for dear life. She was shit scared and more determined to abseil than anyone else I’ve ever seen.
Dave and I are chilling at the top of the abseiling tower letting kids off when she came shaking her way through the cubby hole bawling her eyes out. She was TERRIFIED! It took a decent 5 minutes to get her off the ladder and sitting on the platform floor. And then finally finally we get her to stand up. Dave is being sooo encouraging and trying to get her to let go of the metal bar she was clinging to. She wasn’t having a bar of it (haha get it?) so she would let go for 2 seconds and grasp it again. Dave was very patient. Because there was no chance of her stepping away from the bar Dave finally said “you have done so well but given that you aren’t comfortable letting go of the bar I think we will have to be happy with how far you have gotten and maybe give abseiling a miss.” As soon as he said that she completely let go of the bar and looked at ease without it. Dave was shocked and agreed to keep going with her attempt to abseil. The second he agreed to keep going she clung back onto the bar for dear life. She was shit scared and more determined to abseil than anyone else I’ve ever seen.
The whole time we were coaxing her off the edge she didn’t make a fuss or try to climb back in, she just slowly went through the paces. Everytime she got overwhelmed and started getting sewing machine legs she would take a deep breath and calm down and keep going.
When she was halfway down the wall she was grinning like a Cheshire cat and was so pleased at having conquered her fears.
All I can say about this girl (other than all the other stuff I just said about her) is woe betide anyone who attempts to get in the way of her achieving what she has set her mind to.
I have the warm shiny feeling of having just been inspired.
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