Sydney: Keener Reflections

This is my third year here and I have found that the first couple days at Keenerville are always a little bit awkward. On our first night here Anna looked around the the Thunderdome and laughed because we were all spread out. Not sitting to close and hardly talking, just letting her fill the silence. Anna said "don't worry you'll all be trying to fit as many of you on the couches as you can by the end of this" and everyone looked at her like she was absolutely insane.

 With only 4 of us being returning keeners this session, not many people knew how close knit this group gets. After a couple days everyone starts being more open with each other and realizes that this isn't a normal group of teenagers. Everyone here shares a common love of kayaking and drive to learn. This eliminates any normal high school things such as drama and people not getting along. After a few speeches from our keener mom who truly becomes like a mom to us, everyone feels more prepared for what they've gotten themselves into. After roughly a week everyone is pretty good friends, some closer than others, and everyone knows each other. By this week everyone really has been trying to fit as many people as possible onto the couches under any circumstance weather it's for a quick 5 minute coaches meeting or a long movie.

This is my favourite thing about Keeners because every year is the exact same. There is always a few awkward first days and people looking at Anna like she's crazy when she promises we'll all be bestfriends. Looking back at the end of the session it's hard to believe I've only known these people for 3 weeks. It seems like such a short time to get to know people as well as we all know each other and have people be such vital pieces to our lives. Stevo said in a speech the other day how all they do is "take away a fast internet connection and force us to interact with each other face to face." That's what makes this place so memorable to all of us in my opinion. If we had a good internet connection and other things to do and distract ourselves with, we wouldn't be half as close as we are. But because we are pushed out of our comfort zones and forced to interact and do things with each other, we build a solid friendship.

Friends For Life

Some of my best friendships have come from this program and I couldn't be any happier about that. On a different note, this session at Keeners I’ve learned numerous tricks that I didn’t think I’d be able to do this year. I feel happy with how I’ve progressed and am looking forward to learning even more with World Class. I’ve never even been in a creek boat before and the only ‘creek run’ I’ve ever done was the 7 sisters on the Rouge River. I’m definitely more comfortable in my playboat however I’m really looking forwards to this next adventure. I feel it will give me an entirely new skill set and open up so many more opportunities and I am beyond stoked to see what’s in store for me. I hope that my freestyle background can bring something different to the school and also hoping kayaking that much will help me to improve my freestyle paddling. I’m nervous and excited all at the same time and it still hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m even going.. Cheers, Sydney.