Looking
back at my past blog posts I realize how I often write about the friends I’ve
made on this trip. I’m so happy to return home with such amazing people but I’m
also realizing how I’m ok without them as well; how I can still do great things
outside of South Africa and without 30 people cheering behind me. We will
always have each other and our shared experiences but it’s becoming clear that
because of their support I can do these crazy things on my own too.
While
I realize that I will survive (as I have done before) without this group, this
weekend forced me to do scary things without all of them there and made me
understand my own power. We traveled the garden route this past weekend making
stops along the way and one of those stops was at bungy jumping in the Eastern
Cape. As the highest commercial jump in the world we obviously needed to stop.
I generally hate heights and the idea of free falling but it was something I
felt I needed to do while here. While a lot of the group jumped together, I was
on the bridge with only a few others people. And as I was standing on the edge
of a huge bridge alone, there weren’t 30 people yelling behind me. And even
though I was by myself up there, I was still able to jump.
Over
the past 3 months I’ve learned a lot about being part of a team and working
with people to achieve one goal. I’ve seen the ups and downs of consensus and
I’ve learned when to stand up for my opinion and when to let others take the
lead. And with all of that in mind I’ve also learned to do things for myself. To
find support from myself instead of a huge group in order to do things that
scare me. I can only imagine the great things that we will accomplish as a
group when we go home but I’m starting to see the power behind an individual as
well.
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