Success. A name people long for, a path people die for, something achieved over years of tears, blood, sweat and experience.
Picture yourself on a long road, going 50 kilometers per hour, leisurely travelling. All you see is a blue sky, a distant road, and a lonely path, unsure of your future but sure of what comes shortly ahead. You have no idea, you have no experience, but all you have is courage. You have a bag of talent and potential, and in approximately 300 meters, you see the first Monticle. Your start.
Trans Canada is our start, our first taste of what may become “our future” or simply reality. Over the past seven days, we were challenged to organize a trip. A trip to Inuvik, Arctic. The first few days were rocky, we had no idea. Just like all our first times. Our first bike ride, our first rollercoaster, first skate on ice, first day of school, over time and experience we know how to improve, we learn our mistakes, and get better after each failure, each drop. Trans Canada allows us this opportunity to do so, to screw up, to fail. But simply to have an idea what may be ahead, to prepare for the long run.
Day 1, we meet each other, break the ice. We begin the planning, but ran over schedule. As we came up with ideas, but it simply made things more confusing. Just like you trying to climb a hill, with ropes, occasionally tangling yourself and causing further delays. You sit there wondering what to do next, when you begin to think of solving this problem, you start exercising the critical thinking part of your brain, enhancing its ability to help you.
Day 2, we continue the planning, we do a test. We head under the sun for the entire day, see the reaction of teammates. Practice and get to know the physical needs, the techniques of wilderness survival and simply the personality and “leading style” of each other. Think of this as getting to know your partner, getting to know your teammates, the people who are going to support you along the road. Your true friends, your competitors.
Day 3, the expedition begins. Action. It was time set off onto our journey, what we planned for, the first test of water. Waking up at 3:00, everyone packed, loaded up and experienced the first delay of the entire trip. After the arrival to the campsite, efficiency began to lower. People were running overtime, showers were taking too long, quantity of food was overestimated, traveling schedules messed up. The first delay, is equivalent to the first little bump that shocks everyone, but tells you what to take caution on, what to prevent , and basically, the brief sight of reality. What could possibly happen next? A flat tire? A engine malfunction? System overheat? Many many things you have to begin to consider as a team. Team captains and 2Ics experienced a somewhat “wake up call”. How long would a shower take? How do we equally distribute man power? How do we diversify and increase workspeed? How would the efficiency of building tents increase over time? Questions like such begins to flow into your mind.
Day 4, we experience the first few hiccups. The navigation plan is beginning to get confusing, are we really going to be able to travel that far? Is it really necessary to stop so many times? Questionable decisions are made, overtimed pitstops, undisciplined timing, messed up time management. Our leader, Billy, then tells us where we made mistakes. He asks us questions, questions that reflects the duabiliy of our plan. From the original individual team plan, the team leaders made a decision to combine all three groups to make one big cooperative team. But here comes the questions: IS it really going to benefit the team? When one person runs in a marathon, they can go fast, but they can’t go long. If two people run together, they can go long, but not fast. Now duplicate the 2 by 15, we have 30 people, how are we going to manage it? How are the cooks and navigators going to communicate between vehicles? What is the contingency plan? That, is the phase of the road signs. They tell you what may become ahead, what to watch out for, and what you are doing wrong. They guide you along the road, helping you as you go, but don’t tell you or give you the rightful answer.
Day 5, We begin encountering further considerations, wet gear, time consuming pitstops, far away gas stations. But a grasp of hope flutters across the view, as we cross the boarder and got out of Ontario. How are we going to solve such problems? That is the phase of the fogging window. Things begin to get in your way, fogging up your window, blocking your view of success, when suddenly it rains. The small breaths of hope clearly up part of your window, allowing you to continue but not see the entire picture. As you continue along the road, circumstances get harder, tougher, and most importantly, different.
Day 6 , The big charge, we took a deep breath and traveled 1000 kilometers. From Manitoba we passed Saskatchewan and reached the “near” boarder of Alberta. With everyone so tired, the drivers suggested a rest before continue trip. So without a choice, we stayed at the Walmart parking lot, and spent the night there. That is the long run, where everyone takes a deep breath and charges beyond expected areas, then rests in a least comfortable place to save time, money and effort. At times in need, you have to sacrifice, you have to extend and challenge yourself to a point that you simply cant do it no more. Think of the road is general, instead of what you may think is appropriate simply regarding the first 100 meters of your road.
Day 7, communication. Going through a whole day of driving, rain began to pour onto the mud making it mushy and squishy. Communication between members is needed when we were expected to arrive inside the house without making a mess, getting any dirt in, but just your luggage, your daypack, no more. Communication between members is crucial to organizing the entire operation. How do you know what the others are doing, how do you know whos not doing anything, how to diversify man power in a orderly fashion? How do you organize everything without overlapping jobs with others. Communication is the solution. Just like the frequently told tale of the tower of Balbare, when iseralities tried to build a tower that reached the heavens, at first everything went quite well, going smoothly and efficiently, but then the lord changed all their languages and they weren't able to speak to each other. That ended the entire idea of building the tower of Balbare, nobody knew what to do, how to do things, instead just became a bunch of extremely confused people.
Over these seven days, we came across many different problems and same time lectures. Day 1, getting to know each other. Day 2, planning and brainstorming beforehand. Day 3, experiencing the problems, the challenges, getting a brief idea about the long road ahead. Day 4, unrealistic plans, contingency plans, change of plans. Day 5, a grasp of hope to keep everyone going. Day 6, pushing the limits, but not bursting the envelope. Day 7, communication, how do you talk to one and another, to create a more efficient surrounding for everyone. These are basic first stages of success as far as we know. In order to succeed, we must do all those things. If one of them goes missing, the others wouldn’t work. Go back to that picture of a lonely empty road, you hit a speedbump, you slow down, reflect on what you’ve done. You check the road signs for help, you look forward to see what may possibly come ahead. You take your time to recap everything, change whats wrong, and step back on track. Take a step back, look at the big picture, communicate, experience, recap, brainstorm, push the limits. The first few steps we’ve encountered so far, the first few steps of success. In order to get to the point of success, we must experience the screw ups, the failures, or frankly the experience of critical thinking.
Put yourself back into the picture of that road one last time, you see the bag of talent and potential beginning to shine brighter and brighter. You notice that the road ahead is smoother than it used to be, you look up the sky and see the happy birds flying across the big blue sky, the car is moving smoothly. At approximately 400 meters, you see a glowing bag of bright lights. That’s experience.
As Success is a name people long for, a path people die for, something achieved over years of tears, blood, sweat and experience.
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