How does one describe the first two days of Leadership Seminole and put into words what we all accomplished as a group?

Well this will be difficult to accomplish in one article; however, we are Class #19 and Class #19 never use words like “can’t” in our vocabulary. Class #19 learned in the first two days to use words like “commitment”, “encouragement” and “trust”. The words are not new to this skilled group, it is obvious we all have heard and utilized these words before. However, on Friday at the Canterbury Retreat and Conference Center, these words became each group’s special key to help each other open a door to a new frontier of achievement.   

“Ties That Bind” truly did just that for the students of Class #19 – we all had to overcome our weakness and depend on each other to reach our accomplishments. The 40’ wall stood high in Oviedo as an obstacle for our groups; yet with encouragement given freely by each group’s teammates, I witnessed first hand what it really means. Just moments before the wall drill started a class mate saying “I don’t thick I can climb that high”, yet 30 minutes into the drill I saw achievement at the top of the wall though perseverance and determination and yes, teammate encouragement.

The next challenge Class #19 had to identify with our inner strength and test our courage was the telephone pole walks. One pole was straight up vertically and at the top of this pole there was no platform waiting, just a tightrope with some rope over head to hang on to. The tightrope experience tests one’s ability to first, overcome heights, and second, have the physical and mental strength to continue to pull and hold one’s own body weight across the tight rope for the distance of a football field. Well, I am stretching the truth; but when you’re that high up in the air and you look across to the next telephone pole, it sure seams like it a football field away.  I learned commitment from my classmate, Gaby Ortigoni.  Gaby fell from the tight rope exercise with just one more rope line to grasp and, unfortunately she fell. As the facilitators told Gaby they would lower her to the ground, Gaby denied the jester and requested one more try.  I am quite sure she was tired and most of her energy spent, yet Gaby displayed first hand what commitment is. She never gave up, and that Friday afternoon Gaby tried the tightrope one more time and I saw the word “commitment” become three-dimensional through her actions.

Trust was witnessed first hand by Class #19 with our eagerness and desire to don the safety equipment our instructors gave us. For example, the safety harnesses and the two-point safety harness.  These two important pieces of equipment were our life lines – they needed to function correctly and not fail at any time in order to keep Class #19 safe while we all attempted to achieve success over our fears. The students on Friday never questioned if these life lines would work.  We openly displayed trust in the equipment and what our instructors told us to do in order to accomplish and carry our success as a group. Thanks to “commitment”, “encouragement” and “trust”, Class #19 learned about each other and, more importantly, we all bonded together as a group and individual bonds were also established that day. The leadership attributes could be felt by Class #19. When one teammate was weak, others responded and gave confidence. We all learned as a group to identify our strength and weaknesses, and when one was weak others became strong.  What a testimony for individual confidence being accomplished through team support – and yes, you said it, those three big words: “commitment”, “encouragement” and “trust”.  Thank you, Class #19, for your help and commitment.  I am proud of all our achievements and I am proud to be a part of this class.