RYLA

Rotary keeps getting better and better.  Every time I think I am done being amazed with all of its programs, something else comes along to amaze me all over again!  This time, it was the Rotary Youth Leadership Association (RYLA).  RYLA is a program that was begun in New Zealand and then spread throughout the word.  According to the official programme, RYLA aims to encourage leadership of youth by youth and to provide an effective training experience by giving an opportunity to:

• Develop leadership skills;


• Increase self confidence;


• Gain exposure to a variety of issues and people;


• Make new friends;


• Obtain information and skills useful in life and/or work.

I know it sounds very official, but this was the best leadership conference I have ever attended (and I have attended my fair share).

I was originally not planning to attend RYLA at all.  Amy had attended right after she arrived last year and loved it, and Meredith was planning on attending this year, but I didn’t think I would have enough time and so did not apply.  Everything works out for the best, though.  I got a phone call from the program director on Friday, 13 January, asking me that if someone had to drop out at the last minute, could I drop everything and attend?  Meredith was very excited about attending, and I never say no to good opportunities, so of course I said I could go.  At this point, it was only about a 50/50 chance of someone dropping out, but I kept my fingers crossed.  I got a phone call at about 2PM on Tuesday asking me if I could still go the next day.  Yes!  Success!

Meredith and I got all packed that night (which was very difficult to do because we weren’t sure what we were going to be doing) and then drove out to Silverstream at 2PM on Wednesday.  Silverstream is a suburb of Wellington, only about 20 minutes out, and my host counsellor kindly drove us out there.  When we arrived, Meredith and I almost turned around and went home.  We might have tried to hide in the boot if the programme hadn’t been so highly recommended!  We were housed in an old asylum-turned-prisoner-of-war-camp (or the other way around, I can’t remember).  The majority of the buildings have not been refurbished and are tumbling down.  It was shocking.  Thankfully, the reception area was in a modern building, and once we finally found our accommodation, it was not in shambles.  I was still very wary at this point, though.  I hadn’t been excited about this for as long as Meredith and wasn’t quite sure if this was how I wanted to spend the next five days of my life.

We had received our schedules that afternoon, and I don’t think they could have fit anything else in this extended weekend.  We were that booked.  We began each day at 6.30am with exercise and we went full on until between 10pm and midnight every night.  Now, just because the official programme was over at, say, 11pm doesn’t mean that we went to bed at 11pm.  Rotary is first and foremost a service organisation, but it is also very social, and its conferences reflect that fact.  Every conference I have been to with Rotary has built in time for social activities.  One night we went into Wellington to some establishments, and the other nights the facilitators set up a small bar for us to enjoy in the evenings.  This led to some late nights followed by early mornings!  (For reference, Meredith and I calculated our amount of sleep over the conference when we arrived home.  We determined that we slept for roughly 17 hours between Wednesday morning and Sunday night.)

Our schedules were so packed because the RYLA team put together a phenomenal programme.  Our first speaker was the Chief Executive of NZ Post, and it took off from there.  We heard from medical researchers about burnout, MPs about having a vision and what it’s like in Parliament, workers from the Human Rights Commission about cultural diversity, and young entrepreneurs.  We were split into seven teams and had building challenges and races.  We had team building activities that included a ropes course, traversing all over the camp and dodging obstacles (including crawling through a pitch black old sewer pipe), racing around Wellington in ‘The Amazing Race,’ and building a raft and sailing around a part of Wellington Harbour in cold rain.  One night we played the International Strategy Game, which is where we were split into countries and we had to trade commodities and space in factories to meet our objectives.  One of my favourite speakers was from a company called TetraMap who helped us learn about our specific leadership type and how to effectively communicate with other types.  Another good session was about how to set goals and achieve them.  Many conferences will focus on setting the right goals, but we also learned how to take the action steps to achieve our goals.  I could have done with a few of the sessions being shorter, but overall it was an incredible inspiring weekend.

Now, most of my leadership conferences that I have attended in the past have been through Georgia Tech, and this means that the same sort of people attend all of them.  It may be people in my major or people in my social circle.  The conferences are also quite short, taking up just a day or two.  RYLA is completely different.  We had youth from all walks of life.  There were 18 year olds who had just graduated from high school all the way to 24 year old dentists.  There were people who weren’t planning on going to university, people who were in university, and people who had graduated university.  We had builders, teachers, world champion athletes, engineers, and students.  Some were married, and some had children.  Many had never really heard of Rotary before or had not idea what it was all about.  The only thing that we all had in common was a drive to learn more about our own leadership styles, about how to be a better leader.  We all came from different paths, and none of us knew each other in the beginning.  Another different thing about RYLA is that we lived together for five days.  We socialised together, learned together, broke through barriers together.  It was the longest, most intense conference that I have ever attended.  Something happened to all of us right around the end of the second day / beginning of the third day.  We all seemed to come together as a group, and the friendships really started to form.  It was very odd for me to get so close to these people right before I leave, but I don’t regret it at all.  Everyone was amazing and has such drive for whatever it is that they want to do.  We have a reunion coming up in about two weeks, so I get to see everyone one last time before I go.

Altogether, it was an amazing weekend.  I never thought I could do that much for that long on so little sleep, but when everyone else is pushing themselves that far, you do too.  I am still exhausted because I have only just realised how much I have left to do and how little time I have left to do it.  I began my two week intensive class yesterday, so that takes a good chunk out of my time.  I also have heaps of reading, catching up, errands, etc, to take care of.  I am preparing for finals, for my trip to Australia, and for leaving the country to go back to Atlanta.  I got a little freaked out the other day when I put in notice to cancel my gym membership because it was the first official ‘I’m leaving Wellington’ act.  Cross your fingers that I can keep going till Australia before crashing!