Meet the Robbies

The time had come to meet the class of 2017 Robertsons. I was just as nervous as excited to meet the incredible and intimidating group of students who would essentially become my family for the next four years. From the absolute beginning they were the most interesting, intelligent and exceptionally kind people I’ve ever met. Our first dinner before retreat was full of excitement, Maimuna, Chi Chi and Sanmi and I talked about everything from music, to home countries/towns, to jobs to passions. There was a real sense of joy and camaraderie already apparent.

I shared a room with Maimuna, or Muna from Kenya that night and I stayed up late chatting to this really fun, lively person. I couldn’t wait to talk to more people on the bus the next day.

The bus ride down to our NOLS retreat in Nantahala was loud and full of energy. We played a twisted form of musical chairs, just to get a chance to speak to as many people as possible. I spent a lot of that trip speaking to Anna, and Elle and Virgina, all with different interests, talents and passions but equally interesting and kind.

We arrived, and it started pouring ( I felt very glad to have my brand new and expensive raincoat!). Luckily it didn’t last long and we dived straight into activities after dropping our stuff off in our cabins, I was sharing with Jaclyn (California), Monique (North Carolina) and Charlotte (New Zealand).

After a few introduction activities we played a highly entertaining, though totally insane game. In pairs we would blindfold one person and send them out crawling in a circle with other blindfolded people. The “seeing” partner would then direct the blindfolded one to grab a soft ball and throw it at someone else crawling in the circle, getting them out.

It was chaos.

People were screaming, tactics were getting competitive, and Kasper was just running around the circle yelling at his partner to “follow my voice!”

After discussing how the weekend would go, talking about what community and leadership meant to us we had some free time. We headed down to the freezing, fast flowing river and got in. Hunter and Kasper tried to swim against the current, as I froze slowly in the shallows.

Dinner was followed by a campfire and marshmallow challenges. The only girl to volunteer for “Chubby Bubbies” I was also the first out. The losing streak continued as my team’s spaghetti tower with-a-marshmellow-on-top was more a horizontal than vertical success.

Escaping the mosquitos we headed into the hall where we stayed up late, talking about ambrassing moments, failed relationships, our hobbies and the infamous American “Prom Ask”. Australian boys – you are doing it wrong. In the U.S they don’t just go : “umm so you wanna go to formal with me?” there are balloons, and scavenger hunts and paint and confettiti!! You need to up your game.

Collapsing in bed, to the reassuring hum of mosquitos, I was exhausted but elated to be amongst such a great group of people.