_: August 2012

There comes a time when all of the students leave—the very same students that you watched mature and change over the course of their respective programs—and head back out into the world; a time when all the remaining people (which, of course, means the leaderships) do a final complete cleanup of HQ and the equipment, as well as preparing things for next year’s events. It’s quite a big job, but with the return of a safe and healthy Jacky, and the arrival of Alastair, things are running quite smoothly.

We had the opportunity to sleep in later this morning, but we also had to clean the apartment—vacuuming the carpets, wiping the floors, windows and the like. When we arrived at HQ, we immediately set to work disassembling the Feathercraft kayaks. We had to move them into the building from the trailer outside; they had a great deal of water on them from the thunderstorm last night, but luckily, we’d been able to flip them over yesterday to prevent the water from flowing into them and potentially damaging the kayaks’ frames. Drying and waxing the fibreglass kayaks, and cleaning and taking apart the Feathercrafts was very time-consuming, but still faster than assembling them. However, we still only had enough time to get a few nibbles of raisin bread.

After taking a break for a lunch of instant noodles, and the arrival of Jacky, we finished up with the disassembly of the two K2 Feathercrafts. We also had to record all of the damages to the equipment, such as a bending (and therefore disfiguration) of a part of the K2’s frame, or a breaking of a tow line. After we finished with the kayaks, we washed the Zodiac, which proved to be highly entertaining as Alastair appeared right in the middle of our soap suds and sponges. We also took in the full effect of the damage done to the fibreglass kayaks and then waxing them to prevent further deterioration.

The cleanup will continue for the next few days, but we’re all running on different schedules now that school will be starting soon. So expect to see different arrays and combinations of faces on the blog everyday!

Jennifer

This place seems so empty without the sounds of laughter and many able hands doing work. Sure, there are all of the leaderships, finally reunited, but it just doesn’t feel the same. I miss Alpha group’s energy, Bravo group’s openness, and Charlie group’s kindness, and of course, all of them and their entertainment factor. I will be going home for a few days, but I will be back to help on Thursday. It just feels a bit odd to be going home now, because although I’ll be getting rest, I’m no longer used to my own lazy pace anymore. And dare I say it? I’ll almost be lonely; but of course, that can’t be it.

On this last day, we woke up either one of two states: dead tired, or hyper. The pace was a lot slower today; as our bloggers worked to finish up all of the student blogs and mitigate the media’s shoddy work regarding our Lake Ontario kayak crossing, the students went over what they had learned from the experience, as well as what they’d learned overall from the program.

We’ve all learned a lot from our various experiences; holding a K2 Feathercraft kayak above or heads as a team, canoeing, spelunking, working together to set up and take down tents, learning about hypothermia (and then being able to apply the supposed “dry” information), swimming in Lake Ontario for close to 3 hours, experiencing the thrill of marksmanship while being responsible at the same time, walking 30 kilometres from HQ to Cherry Beach, accepting responsibility for the poor assembly of the kayaks as well as their subsequent reassembly, and of course, our Lake Ontario experience.

However, these are all of the big events that you can read about on the blog. What made Charlie group special was the little things. Things such as our silent time before meals to create a sense of unity by table manners, our lovely mixture of idiosyncratic and slightly dysfunctional Mandarin and Cantonese, missing laundry, getting stuck in caves, encountering a skunk on the beach at night, the collecting of bullet casings, the mopping of floors, and “bit strips.”

Charlie group was a very special group that showed great initiative and an eagerness to lend a hand. We really hope that we’ll see them all again in the near future. Until then!

Brian Ma

I wake up in the morning

I brush my teeth

I go to the van

I eat lunch

I go to the restaunt

I eat food

Andrew

Wow, these 19 days came by real quick! I learned an immense amount of leadership skills. Some of the leadership skills I learned were presented through activities like building a kayak, and crossing Lake Ontario together on kayaks. Now that I’ve completed this course, My knowledge on leadership skills has expanded. The opportunity that I was given to join this program has truly changed me physically and mentally. When I leave Monticle’s doors, I will take everything that I learned with me.

Lemuel

Last entry

In approxiamately 2 hours, I will be going home. Now is the time to review all the things I have learned during this program. Many of the challenges required a lot of communication and cooperation with each other with each other. There were also challenges that tested your will power and strength to carry on. Such qualities are essential to a leader and that is what I hope to achieve. Although we weren’t able to cross Lake Ontario, I feel that I have learned an important lesson on teamwork and survival. However, in the future, we should probably practice night kayaking and capsizing.

Calvin

Today is the finale of the Me³ program, the last day any students will be at Monticle. I can finally go home and sleep in. This doesn’t mean that I did not enjoy the 60 plus days I was here, it just means that I am really tired I enjoyed my time with every one here and I hope to see them again in the future. I have never been a person who writes much. So I will just say this. All of us have learned something during their 19 days here. Even if they do not realize they have changed in some way. I hope they have a good time until the next time we meet.

Jason Wong

Today was the final day of Charlie group. The programm went by fast. I spent 53 days with Monticle this summer. I learned that I am still not good at paddling (kayaking). I didn’t paddle properly which means I didn’t do the kayaking across Lake Ontario so instead I stayed at HQ. I also learned that attention to detail is important because if not you will easily miss things and could cause danger to people. After watching several movies I learned that teamwork is important because if not you would only care for yourself. I met several students and they were nice and good people. I learned that I could swim for 3 hours with a life jacket which was not surprising. In the end I had a good experience and will never forget any moment.

Jonathan

Today is the last day of the Charlie camp. What I’ve learned for the last days is that I achieved swimming, walking to Cherry Beach, kayaking, canoeing and caving at Warsaw Caves, learning about marksmanship holding a firearm, Shooting a firearm, reading a map, how to take care of equipment, learnin about Social intelligence a lot of times, hypothermia, risk management, holding a kayak properly, learning to be a good leader and many more. What I want to see improved is that I wish the Charlie group visit the city of French-speaking people, that is montreal. Overall, I thought my first year of this camp was pretty good but I think next time, I should help people more and work way more harder.

Jordan

Today was the final day of the Charlie session. This was the last time we packed our bags ad cleaned up the building. To celebrate, we went out for Dim Sum where we all we could. Over the past 19 days. Monticle has changed my perspective. Many things that I deemed impossible to be done was accomplished. There were numerous unforgettable memories and experiences that I have been apart of. The knowledge and education I learned has been applied effectively in all of the adventures. This has built upon my leadership and communication skills. I have been brought together with my peers and lived together like a family. For nearly 3 weeks, I have been brought upon new philosophies which I will carry throughout my life. Ever giving u, taking care of everyone and the equipment and preparing for anything has been emphasized throughout this course. This has truly become unique experience and I hope to return to discover more next summer.

Edwin Cheung

Today is August, 27, 2012. The end of Alpha, Bravo, Charlie group. It is all Complete. I feel really tired. I finally past my shoot test. I when to the shooting range. I want to go on K1 kayak. I learn that “I can do better than that”.

Jennifer

This isn’t my last blog, at least, I don’t think so, so I won’t go into too much of what I’ve learned as that can be saved for a later date. I really do not know what to say at this point. I’m all out of juice from typing up that whopper of a general blog this morning that covered the events of our failed Lake Ontario crossing. I’ll stop right there about that lest I allow my anger to simmer once again. Nonetheless, I’m very tired from writing so much this morning, and I had a very hard time writing this general blog, so I guess this is the limit of my creative juices. Everything that I, as Jennifer Wang, would like to say about Charlie group has already been said as me, the omniscient, unbiased blogger behind the general blog. I will greatly miss the students of the Charlie group, and I wish them luck in the future.

Justin Li

We are finally on the 19^th day and I honestly would like to stay. Throughout the program, I bonded with everyone here and learned many things. I love everyone here, they have made me laugh and have gone through so many things with me. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to everyone. I honestly felt like we were family. At first, I took care of Brian all by myself but as we got to know each other, everyone started to look after him as well. It was hard trying to look after Brian while trying to complete my tasks. While staying at Monicle HQ, I have learned how to take care of myself. At home, I would rely on my family but here, you take care of yourselves, and others. I took care of myself and looked after Brian like he was my little brother. I think I’m less lazy as well. While living with others, I learned how to work with others and actually help provide for the team. Other than that, I have learned many survival skills and many other things as well. For what I recommend, the program should provide training at night for the crossing lake Ontario challenge because you will not be able to see anything. For example, when Kenny and Roman capsized , it took some time to find them in the water. I hope to come back next year but not only me, I want to see everyone again. I also hope that I’ll be able to complete the challenge. Thank you Monticle for everything.

William Lo

Wow, these 19 days sure have passed quickly. Over these days, we have learned many life skills and information that will help us to be good leaders or even good people in the future. I learned how to set up a tent, kayak and canoe. No matter what activities or exercises we would do, we would learn something meaningful. Even though we did many things I still think kayaking is the funnest activity we did. The thrill of being in a boat is thrilling. We learned how to save people if they capsized and we also learned how to float floatlines. We went hiking and along the way, we learned how to organize and manage our food. We planed how to get to a destination and we trained our will power to walk 30 km. For the things I learned and the fun I had , I hope to come back next year.

Ryan Hoang

Today is the final day of Charlie group. I learned many things with this group. Not all was good though. However I am glad that I will see some of them again. What I learned that was most important however was that your emotions cannot control you or you won’t be able to act or lead. I had friends outside the program that would let their emotion control them and go on tantrums. I have no need to say his name because we are no longer friends. Another thing I learned is that leading requires a lot of work and showing initiative.

Roman Wang

I like camp Monticle because it is awesome. This year at camp, we were doing things that only Monticle got to do, we got to learn thing that you could only learn at Monticle. I have been to many other camps, but Monticle is the only one that legitimately inspired in so many ways. I learned and emproved many skills this year at camp, camping, kayaking, and especialy leadership. The most important thing I learned from Billy was: you take care of your equipments, and they will take care of you. For example whe we were on lake Ontario, if our kayak had holes in them, if our flashlights were out of batterie , we wouldn’t have servived. I wish to come back every year and learn different thing. Camp Monticle is awesome!!!

Matthew Kwok

Today is the last day of our 19 day program at Monticle! That SUCKS! I had an awesome time here! There is so many skills I learned from this amazing association. For example shooting guns, kayaking, etc. We learned how to take care of each other when we were in trouble. For example helping a capsized person back on their kayak. But I wished we could’ve of finished our cross lake Ontario Challenge. I also wish this program was longer. It seemed so fast. But I will be coming back next year. But there should be better PT. For example swimming in the lake and learning the Eskimo roll but in the dark. But still this entire experience and adventure was awesome. I hope that next year will be better and maybe more painful! See you later Monticle!

Andy Lau

I find it hard to believe, like, really hard to believe, that my 19-days at Monticle’s Summer Youth Development Program has reached it’s end. As this will be my last blog entry for a while, I’d like to reflect on what I’ve learned. What I’ve accomplished, and what I am looking forward to, should I ever come back to Monticle again.

As might be obvious, the objective of Monticle is to inspire future leaders through education and adventure. With the outing to Warsaw, many of the adventure requirements were fulfilled. As for the educational aspects, mainly through lectures, our communication skills have slowly become to develop as part of our personality and character.

I have been overall surprised at how much I’ve grown up. Nearly three weeks ago, I was and impulsive young man who hardly found it easy to live by himself and integrate with those other young men who were considered ever so carefully to join a Monticle program. Today I behave more or less like any ordinary teenager. I’ve become accustomed to their language and their lifestyle, and every moment possible, I try to behave just like somebody without any developmental disability.

It’s not myself that considers me to have improved since last year’s Me3. Billy has been observing me over the past month and he agrees that I have made great leaps during my time with him. Although he still had to regulate some of my actions, he found that my overall progress was improvement, and he personally said to me that he is proud of my efforts over what seemed to be a challenging experience at first. I am fortunate that he was willing to take me this year and am just as proud of myself as everyone is.

Of course, I must not forget to mention the other instructors, Raymond, Kenny, and guest instructor Kannis, and the leadership tea that supported us students. They were equally willing to participate in the activities that they spent months preparing for us. They were an integral part of the Monticle family. No matter whether they were new or not everyone worked together as if they were family. In fact, the Monticle family grows every event.

Every experience has its successes and failures. Take the past weeks, when I survived in an outdoor environment for the first time in more than a year. I never got lost: I stayed with the group and tried to get involved in everything. There were controversies that I dealt with, but all the time, I managed to control my own self and leave without any further trouble.

Then there was the marksmanship training, which made me very nervous as it was a first-time experience. Nevertheless, I proved that I was brave and confident to handle the firearm, and breezed through in one piece.

My original privelage of riding the Zodiac during the Lake Ontario crossing, as you probably know, was revoked on the last minute. What I learned, and perhaps the most prominent lesson I learned on the whole, was to respect others just as I wanted to be respected. Later, despite learning of the epic failure of the rest of the rest of the group during the attempt, I did not lose my hope, I mean, give up my hope of them. I only wish they would finish the crossing in one piece, next year. By the way, I also congratulate them on surviving the attempt and making the media. When we try again, we won’t give up. We’ll be fighting till the end.

Finally, I have to thank everyone at Monticle, students and leaderships included, for making my journey of leadership a true success. As always, without you, there would be no way.

Good-bye, for now! I’ll miss all of you, but I’ll be back next year for sure! Good luck to all!