Hey friends, so it's been a while...and I apologize, it's been such a busy and exhausting time. I guess before I begin, let me reintroduce myself since there have been a lot of new visitors as of late. I'm Rodmond, RT, whatever you wanna call me. This is my blog...it's a place where...where I express myself...through words, poems, rants, songs, anything and everything. It's a place where I'm extremely honest with y'all and with myself, to a fault sometimes. It's a place where I find safety and comfort, but enough with that...if you decide to come back enough times, you'll soon learn what this blog is about and what it represents. I promise most posts aren't this long, but I'm trying to cover 4 days here...so there's kinda a lot to say lol.
So some quick things, so I had an essay due today...and I had literally no time last week to do it, so I literally did an 8 page essay in the span of one day, I started at like 7 pm yesterday and finished at like 11 pm lol. What else...Drake's More Life dropped and it's literally like Take Care part 2...rnb vibes and hella emotional...it's dope. So now on to last week...so I went to this thing called Teens Conference, this christian conference that happens once a year for high school kids, but a lot of people help from university kids to people graduated and working and such. It lasts 4 days and is split into 2 two day conferences...the first two days being for grades 7-9 and the second two days being for grades 10-12. So I ended up coaching and going all 4 days like many other people helping out. So Teens Conference is something I've heard about and been well aware of since like high school...but I never took the opportunity to attend myself...for many reasons. I didn't want to, it's scary, it's a lot of hype and I had heard many mixed reactions about it. I've never really understood why it takes like several months to plan for a conference that only lasts for 4 days, but lemme tell you that a lot of work is put into this and it really shows because the conference is just jam packed with things to do and things are always happening one after another. So anyways, back in high school...most of the people I know who went to TC loved it...they would tell me how emotional it was, all the yelling/cheering, everyone just crying and being super into it, lifting their hands, making so many friends and stuff...so the thought had always intrigued me, but I guess I was always too reserved and shy and therefore never went when I was in high school. It wasn't until a couple of the youth at my church and my other friend had suggested me volunteering maybe as a coach, they figured I could be helpful and that it would be a good experience for me, so I gave it a shot. So lemme share with y'all the process of applying to be a coach for TC cuz it almost didn't happen. So I had applied and I hadn't heard from them and a couple of weeks had passed by, so I figured okay maybe I got rejected or something...my friend had said that nah that's odd they should at least send you an email saying that. So I kinda brushed it off cuz I was like oh, whatever guess it wasn't meant to be and figured I wouldn't be coaching after all. This was like a month before TC, so I'm like I've already missed the training and stuff so I had already moved on. I get an email like less than a month or around a month before TC and the guy's like my bad for getting back to you so late but are you still interested, can I call you for a phone interview, I'm like sure. Long story short (cuz this is gonna be a long post), he had said he was gonna call me and didn't end up doing so...this happened like 3 other times before he finally called me and gave me a rundown of what would be happening and what my duties and responsibilities were. So come time to meet up and plan some stuff with my other coaches and captains, I walked it and it was one of those things where it just felt like everybody knew each other you know...so I kinda just stood around like true...seeing maybe one or two people I recognized and had small chat with. Overall the planning went real smooth...one of the captains came from my church so I was boys with him so it made coming out of my shell with my other group members easier. Ultimately the planning sessions went really well and now it was just a matter of going to the actual conference itself.
So as a coach, pretty much we're the older members of the team, university and older...we kinda supervise but also guide and give advice to the kids if necessary or if they have any questions about anything. The captains of the team were in high school as well, they were to lead the team, we were there to kinda just help them if they have any problems. So I remember not getting much sleep before the conference, it ran from Monday to Thursday, about like 8 am to 10 pm each day...so it was brutally exhausting. The first day all the coaches gathered early to just talk about the rundown and how things would go, to give you a gist, there was like 20 or so teams with each team having like 12-15 kids...multiply that times 2 because 2 conferences...that's about how many kids where there. I had never been to Teens Conference, I had only heard about it all my life...so how I would explain my experience is that I was both a coach and an attendee. I got to attend and experience everything from the worship, the skits, the games, the bible studies...but I also got to coach, to interact with other coaches, to mentor the captains and see things from 2 different perspectives essentially. I literally feel like I experienced everything that I've ever heard about TC from all my friends...the cheering, the yelling, losing your voice, everyone raising their hands in worship, the games, the tears, old friends, new friends, no macking, lack of sleep, too much caffeine...anything and everything I've heard about TC I feel I got to experience.
Lastly I just wanna share some moments that really highlighted my experience at TC...one was obviously experiencing the worship and media skits...I even skipped the last coaches meeting during the last day because I wanted to experience the entire thing (my coaches said it was cool, they had my back lol). Another would be literally cheering so loud that my voice was so done, I didn't lose it but my throat hurt and it sounded funny lol. NO MACKING is actually a thing...LOL. They have this rule called no macking...essentially no flirting...I died when I first heard the rule...IT'S A THING FAM. I really enjoyed the many coaches meetings and debriefings...getting to talk to, pray and sahre with other christians around my age was really cool. The one biggest standout from TC was when I got the chance to counsel a kid. He shared with me his struggles in life and in christianity, I got the chance to pray for him and he broke down crying...he hugged me and he held on so tight it felt like he didn't wanna let go. He adamantly wanted to keep in contact, so we exchanged emails and we've been emailing since. I ended up meeting his older sister and it turns out she was a coach for the senor conference and I got to have a nice chat with her about just her brother and the things that we talked about and such. It's kind of a long story in itself as well because I almost didn't end up counseling cuz I went through the wrong door and he sat back down but he ended up finding me, so it kinda all worked out somehow. One thing I'll say it I was kinda nervous that's for sure, lowkey hoping no one from my team would go so I wouldn't have to counsel. It's different than just like talking to a friend or giving my younger friends advice...more pressure for some reason lol. Btw shoutout to my boy Lobster who's right beside me taking pictures of me as I'm writing this post lol.
Anyways, just wanted to say thanks to my captains and coaches for making my first TC experience just a dope one, it was super fun spending 4 days with y'all and being able to get to know y'all on a personal level. Much love to the other coaches, volunteers and attendees for making it such a memorable week. With that being said...if you made it to this point...geez, I probably wouldn't...no literally, like once I post this, I might try to reread it and end up giving up...so uh...catch y'all on the flip side, peace.
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