The Grass is Greener on the Other Side

From 8AM to 4PM today, the Women & Leadership, Public Policy, and Social Justice classes were a part of a Challenge Course day where they were split off into smaller groups to endure team exercises which tested their comfort, their patience, and their innovation.

Taking advantage of the gorgeous environment, the class took the time to pose for a group photo.

As we piled onto a bus to headed for Brown’s Haffenreffer Campus for the BELL program, we were as excited as we were curious about what was to come. We had been given very basic information
about what to expect, such as what to bring and that we would be outdoors. We traveled maybe half an hour before arriving to a sunny, grassy scenery located at the bay shores at Bristol, Rhode Island.

Once the three classes arrived, we were led to a large circle where we were given an introductory check-in addressing safety and how they wanted us to challenge ourselves. As soon as the instructor started talking about ticks, I panicked. Being very afraid of bugs, going outside to grassy, open areas is already a challenge for me. Before today, I had never known what ticks were. Luckily, we were supplied with anti-tick socks and bug sprays, which helped calm my anxiety.

We were then split into several groups to begin the courses. Our facilitators were Tory, my RA and class TA, and Blair, an on-call staff member. There were about 13 girls in our group, all of them from Women & Leadership. We started with basic trust exercises and moved on to harder courses which required a lot more creativity. It was strange how the dynamic of the group -- girls who we'd had such deep, emotional experiences with -- had changed so drastically with some of these exercises. I think, since we are all so accustomed to being the "leaders" in our respective communities, we experience something of a clash when we are all put into the same group to reach the same objective.

Snacks at the shores was a great time.

Being at the shores reminded me of the Bay Area at the San Francisco, except sunnier.

Conquering the challenge course, sporting my tick-resistant socks.

Today, I would say that we expanded our communication and leadership skills while trying new things as well as discovered new things about our classmates. While the whole experience was frustrating at times, it was a new experience that gave us new perspectives on how to approach challenging situations.