NCS pt.1

Hellooooo Humansss!!!

Recently, I went on a residential trip to Kingswood; Ashford, through NCS and I wanted to talk a bit about this experience.

Many people are unsure about going to NCS for various reasons ranging from the lack of knowledge regarding what the 5 days entail to the anxiety of having to meet and live with completely new people (strangers).

I understand, going away from home for 5 days to live with strangers goes against our whole existence especially since the chant 'stranger danger' echoes within us since primary school, but this opportunity to go out of your comfort zone and test the limits is a challenge that we will have to combat at some point in our lives, so why not get used to the concept of being thrown out of our comfort zone now than later on in our lives?

Anyway, enough of that, time to talk about what each day was like!

Day 1: To be honest.....I don't remember...Hold on, give me a second....Oh right.

Sorry about that, needed to refresh my memory. Anyway, we basically started from our pick-up point to head to Kingswood which was a 1hr 30 minute ride. I went with my three friends Die-anna, Krish and Krithika (quick round-of-applause to commemorate their entry; it's been ages since I had them back on my post).

After a long ride and 15 minutes of the movie 'Nenu Local' we arrived at our destination.

By the way, my first major obstacle was the fact that I was going to be separated from my friends who would be together in one team. How did I know this? Well, I scanned the register to see the teams when I had to tick myself off - I know, very sly.

So already, the experience was off to a rocky start. But like God heard my prayers, a sudden turn of events left me in astonishment but also gratitude. Some people decided to not grace us with their presence and therefore they needed to re-allocate teams and we could choose what team we were on. Fate (a friend me and Krish are closely acquainted with) had yet again worked in my favour.

Surprise surprise, we all ended up together but there were 10 other people on our team who we needed to at least manage talking with.

We had two team leaders who were the NCS staff (and we honestly thought they were both in their mid-late twenties, which by the way, they weren't) and they made us play two truths and one lie along with other ice-breaker games. At this point, all of us weren't besties but we were definitely more comfortable with each other.

And then they made us play a game...which we all hated....I'm not going to specify what, but it was just ridiculous in fact ludicrous!

After stalling us for another hour, they made us do another activity because the accommodation wasn't ready which by the way was painful to endure because we were absolutely curious about the rooms we were going to stay in!

The activity was basically a list of 10 photos our team needed to take with my favourites being the selfie we took at exactly 4:44pm with a clock and the photo we took hanging upside down. We also needed to record 10 videos with our team and my favourites were the ones edited by Krish which entailed the guys re-enacting a scene from mean girls, an advertisement for Kingswood and a David Attenborough style video talking about humans. The creative juices were flowing and the videos were videoing!

We finally got to see our accommodations after the activity....and....we were shooketh...

Honestly, they weren't that bad...or even bad at all..except for the fact that the boys got to have dorms - actual rooms, whilst the girls were stuck in a cabin with tents inside...what made my friends and I's experience even worse was the fact that there was no light in our room - 4/5 days we remained in darkness. Not to mention the freezing cold air that seeped through the net-like windows every morning to capture us in it's grip.

I thought we were done for the day after settling down into our dorms, well, tents. I even got into my night wear, when they called us out for some reflection time. I mean come on! I was in bright pink shorts and a Winnie the Pooh t-shirt with sliders.

Anyway, we basically sat around in a circle and talked about life and set goals we wanted to accomplish by the end of the week. My goals were bonding with my friends and making new friends as well as embracing new experiences. There were some...interesting goals too..but that's what made this experience unique and helped me learn more about everyone's personality.

I think reflections and evenings were my favourite times of the day now that I think back at it. By the end of day 1, I thought I'd feel homesick or miss my family, but so far, I was feeling pretty good.

I think it just felt nice having my three friends on the trip with me - our first ever sleepover, away from home.

Side note: Krish and Krithika really need to learn how to put their own duvet covers on, I wrestled 3 duvet covers and the videos Krish took literally looked like I was fighting wild bulls! Day 2: Waking up was hell. I hated having to fight the cold in order to get up and I made the mistake of not wearing many layers because it was so stuffy the night before. Warm nights and cold mornings - a killer combination (in a bad way).

After painstakingly making my trip to the toilet with no mirror and a tiny sink that looked like the toilets on a building site, I got ready and at this point I was still bothered enough about my appearance so I tried to do some basic level getting ready and makeup but here's the twist; with no mirror! I know you're probably thinking, what's the big deal, just use your phone camera, well Mr Einstein, you would know how big of a task that would be if you tried it because you can never get the right side and also WE HAD NO LIGHT REMEMBER, so we also needed to try and not trip over our own suitcases and feet! Thankfully our next door neighbour and also teammates lend their mirror. That was the beginning of the borrowing-mirror-every-morning routine and that brought us together as well - after all, a girl in need, is a friend indeed. I had some breakfast which consisted of beans and hash browns but I do wish I had something more because nothing could've prepared me for what was coming next...

We had some outdoor activities planned for this day and the first activity was Jacob's Ladder - we had to climb a ladder that moved which had steps that became further and further apart as you climbed higher - the only thing protecting us from a fall were our harnesses and we went up in pairs to help each other, which meant the ladder was more wobbly, but we really needed a partner to help climb the top part of the ladder as we could barely reach it without using someones help.

To put things into perspective, this took most of my energy, just from the fact that it required us to be able to swing our leg high whilst maintaining balance on a moving swing in order to climb the next step, and trying to help your partner was quite challenging and demanding of your limbs. They honestly should've got us to stretch or do a little warm up because I feel this activity was at fault for my aching body for the next few days.

Me and Krithika felt we could not go higher for several reasons and I definitely thought of forfeiting due to the sheer difficulty of climbing to the next height but...we persevered...I literally stood there, swinging my leg like 5 times but I don't know why, I still kept trying. AND WE DID IT! We got to the top! I don't know how we did it, but we did! It was nerve-wracking and it felt like my heart would be ripped out of my body but also it felt thrilling and exhilarating to be able to push my limits and succeed! We then completed an obstacle course which required team work and luck (we literally played rock paper scissors to advance to the next level), overall, I enjoyed that experience apart from the fact that I fell from the monkey bars and my right arm took the fall so I am still suffering through that pain, but it was worth it. I was in more shock than pain when I fell because I'm usually good at monkey bars, but one of the bars was spinning so it was harder to grip onto, which caught me by surprise! One thing I learnt from the obstacle course, is that I'm a spider-monkey at heart. I really should look into a future in rock-climbing!

We also had something called the leap of faith to climb and jump off of after lunch, the part where I climbed to the top was not bad, but the part where I looked down sent shivers cascading through my body, but I guess the adrenaline rush beat the shivers because I jumped anyway - I was safe, and got to come down mission-impossible style on a harness.

The fun was not over though, we had another activity to go! Quidditch! If you are a Harry Potter fan, you know what I'm talking about. Except we didn't have broomsticks to ride on and the game didn't last hours...but it did last a while as the snitch (one of our team leaders) was quite fast. By the way, the beaters were just someone from each team who would use a dodgeball to get a person on the opposite team out. I could go into the details of this game, but it would take ages, so just let me know if you want to know how to play Quidditch in real life, in the comments!

What came next was just unfortunate, you probably didn't know but our team wasn't exactly the athletic type, so let's just say the only athletes on our team were slightly frustrated when we lost terribly in a game of bench ball to a significantly more athletic (and tall) team. But hey, like one of our team leader said, we were more brainy and creative than sporty (not his exact words but what was implied). Also the other team were cheating, but also like our team leader said, the cheaters would never admit to cheating and in life we must ignore and move on.

Then I got the chance to shower which by the way was the most rewarding and blissful thing in the world. Yes they were building site-style but it felt so good to get rid of the mud and feeling of being drenched in the rain all afternoon (after playing quidditch and benchball).

We had a small patio at the front of our tent where we had a bench to sit on and contemplate life whilst doing some skincare in our nightwear. True comfort and happiness!

It was raining during reflection time as well, but this time, it felt like we all had more to talk about, and we learnt a lot more about each other. By the 2nd day, it felt like we all knew each other a lot more, and there was definitely some friendly banter exchanged (not naming names but you know who you are...XD). I could go on and on about the experiences about NCS...but I think it's time to halt, take a break, and invade your Sunday with a part two of NCS next week. No I did not do this on purpose, I just didn't realise I had so much to say!

So for this week, and the first half of NCS, the moral of the story is: Don't be afraid to try new things and cross your limits, self-doubt may just lead to regret of not trying and a whirlpool of curiosity of what could have been. - Ravitreni Signing Off