My Summer ‘22 NCS Experience: Kaitlin

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If you’re about to go on Summer ‘22 and need some inspiration and encouragement for what’s to come, just read on! Writers’ Club member Kaitlin has just come back from her experience, here’s what she had to say about each of the programme phases, how she felt, and what she learnt…

Recently, I experienced the two weeks of adventures that is Summer ‘22. It was an amazing experience that I would recommend to any young person.

BE EPIC AND LIVE LIFE

The first two stages took place during week one, when I stayed at the picturesque Lake District! 

After an exciting coach journey, we arrived at our accommodation, and began to bond as a team through fun-filled activities. First, we had a motivational talk from Adam Corbally (who was on The Apprentice!), which was engaging and inspiring. He talked us through his life and achievements, while keeping it interesting by involving us in the talk and treating us as adults. After a quick break we did a police simulator that involved learning about the effects drugs have on people, a drunk simulator, and even tried on police uniforms! 

On the second day of residential, my team did a mountain walk. Although it was tiring, it was rewarding to reach the peak and see the breath-taking view. While sitting at the peak, we ate our lunch and played two truths and a lie to start getting to know each other better. It was a really friendly environment and the instructors for the hike were encouraging and kind, adding to the overall positivity of the experience. On the way back down the mountain, our team leaders paired us up with someone we hadn’t yet spoken to, which although was nerve wracking at first, it helped a lot of the people in my team make new friends. 

That night, we competed in our first team challenge, and won, because everyone worked together and contributed their unique skills and applied it to the challenge. 

For me personally, the third day was when I began to make more friends and feel more comfortable with everyone in the group. In the morning we went gorge scrambling, whichat first was something that scared me, it was one of my favourite activities over the two weeks!. As a team we took part in activities such as the human ladder, where we all had to work together to get each member up the waterfall, until we reached the top as a group. We also had a chance to jump into the water and swim around. Everyone in the group was very supportive of each other, and they were especially supportive of those they knew felt uncomfortable. In the afternoon we took part in a smoothie challenge, where we designed a smoothie and made it using a smoothie bike. 

The fourth day was our last proper day of activities. It was a very bittersweet feeling, there was definitely a mix of happiness and sadness. In the morning, we went canoeing. Firstly, we floated down a river on our backs, before continuing to the lake and setting up the canoes. Instead of just canoeing, we did team activities around the canoes, which were very enjoyable. Then, we were allowed to swim in the water for a while, and have fun with our friends. In the afternoon, we began thinking of ideas for our social action project, which included debating what issue we believed was the most important to tackle. 

In the evening, we sat in a circle in our teams and wrote our name on a piece of paper and passed it around the circle, with everyone writing a message for each other, which could be anonymous. It was one of the best activities of the whole week for me personally, it gave a lot of us a huge boost in confidence which I believe helped us in week two. After that, music was played, and we all spent an amazing last night with our friends. 

DO GOOD

In week two, we began to plan and execute our social action project. My team decided to raise money for Macmillan, and we planned two activities to do this. The first activity, which we did on Thursday, was a five mile walk around our local park, however, for each mile we had to do something different, for example skipping. From this activity we raised around £100. Our second activity was a stall in our town centre, where we set up games such as guess the name of the teddy and asked for donations for children’s toys and books. While doing both the stall and the walk, many of us wore tutus to garner attention and support for what we were doing, and many of us temporarily dyed our hair to raise awareness for different types of cancer. With both activities, and the just giving page that we set up, we raised over £500 for Macmillan, which was well over our original goal of £250!

Everyone contributed for the social action project, from making banners, buying items we needed, asking for donations from businesses, and setting up social media. Even though it was stressful to organise all of this within such a short period (our team had a half day and one day off due to the heatwave), we had lots of fun, and made some friends for life!

Before I went on NCS, I was quite nervous that I would not make any friends and would not enjoy myself. However, I ended up having one of the best experiences of my life, and came away with a lot more confidence and a group of amazing, supportive friends. NCS definitely wouldn’t have been as good without them.  Although there were some challenges, throughout them I was supported by my team, my friends, and my team leaders, and they all helped me overcome the challenges when I thought I would fail. I would recommend NCS to any young person, even if you are unsure like I was. Going on NCS knowing nobody, it was one of the best experiences of my life, and I would do it all over again if I could!