Reflection - Taylor Conklin

I’ll start off this blog by recognizing what a truly incredible 3 weeks it’s been here at Keeners. Never in my life have I felt this exciting about kayaking the same stretch of river every day. I wanted to quickly compile some of my most valuable takeaways from this trip. 

1. You have the power to change the group dynamic, for the better or for the worse. There have been so many times in these past weeks where opportunities have arisen to make a day or activity go south. I’m so thankful that our session built a community based on stoke for kayaking and each other as well as a need for laughter. This greatly helped everyone choose to have a great day every single day. 

2. When in doubt, add secret special sauce. After eating the same 2 dinners every night for the past weeks we learned two things. First, your either going to be eating your chicken off a stick or off the bone. These options alternate in order. WT kitchen never misses their schedule. Ever. Secondly, there is one way spice up these two dinners. And that is to add sauce. Sauce steps up the dinner game and makes the same dinners more enjoyable night after night. 

In reality the idea of “adding sauce” is just a metaphor for the stoke that we brought to each new day on the water. The same dinners can represent the same stretch of river that we did everyday while the sauce represents the excitement and stoke that was felt. Trying something new everyday was such a fun way to spice it up and make things more interesting. Without the undeniable positivity of the coaches and keener community I don’t think it would be possible for me to have had this much fun.

3. The people around you make things the most special. I was fortunate enough to come into this session with a handful of friends from Keeners last year. With that said I’m so happy that we’ve been able to get closer and reunite after a full year apart. On top of that I made so many new friends of all ages. I truly think that the Keener experience is 40% what your given and taught and 60% what you make of it. Adding onto that the people that you surround yourself with and the friendships you create along the way really make the experience one of a kind. 

I’m so thankful for these past weeks and everyone that I met along the way. Thank you Keeners.