Greetings friends, hope you're doing well. So I'm gonna do my best to not make this too long of a post lol. I'm becoming more and more aware of my tendencies to ramble both on this blog and in real life. To sum it up, Teens Conference is a 4 day Christian conference for teens (grades 7-12), it's put together by a bunch of churches across the GTA and many university and up kids volunteer to help out and such. There's worship, messages, games, skits...a lot of team bonding and such. Anyways, I'm gonna skip the long intro cuz I'm assuming most of y'all know what Teens Conference (TC) is, or you can always google it. So this year was my second year as an attendee and also again as a coach. I'll tell you I debated not doing it at all at first. I was like I already went once, got the experience, it was cool but I'm good now. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone and I felt God was really pushing me to do so as well. Once I made the decision to coach, I was like alright, do I wanna just do one conference cuz you know, two days is already enough, they're long days, it's tiring, maybe I'll just do one conference. Then I thought about it again and I was like damn Rodmond, that's selfish, you're not really putting much into it, your captains aren't really gonna get much out of you...it's kinda you just doing your good deed just to say you did it. I had a heart to heart with myself and was like alright, if you're gonna do it, you're all in, if not then don't do it at all. So I decided to coach both conferences, all 4 days. This year was different because I applied early, unlike last year when I joined my team super late. So I got to get to know my team right from the get go, we had a bunch of meetings, get togethers and days to just plan things. Before I even met my captains, I met my co-coach, and he was probably one of the coolest dudes I've met in a while. You ever just meet somebody and all click right away and you're like alright, this is gonna be the start of something dope...that's exactly what it was, it was a perfect balance of joking around and also getting down to work, and I'm super thankful for him and for that. Once we met our captains, it was jokes cuz we had three captains, my co-coach already knew one of them and I kinda knew the other two, so our dynamics were pretty solid from the beginning. My captains were...interesting when I first met them. One seemed super quiet, hesitant to break out of her shell but I could tell she had it in her if she wanted to. The second was just a big ball of energy and you could tell he had a huge heart for people, he really cared. The third one was odd I won't lie, but he was real and I think people saw that and connected with him through that. Lemme tell you there was a lot of procrastination lol, I think all of us at some point or another questioned whether we\d be able to get everything done in time..but we were having fun along the way...well at least I was.
The conference itself was...exhausting, in all aspects...but in a good way. For one, I got to see so many of the people that were on my team last year, seeing how much they've grown and changed. One of my biggest highlights was seeing the kid I counselled last year, the one who literally broke down and hugged me. Words can't express how happy I was to see him again, how much he'd grown, how deep his voice was LOL. The skits were dope as usual, I really enjoyed how they were all connected, each with it's own individual story but also all coming together to form a larger one. Shoutout to my boy D for killing it, through mistakes and all, real is real my friend. The overall theme, the sermon, the worship...really hit me. This idea of the storms in your life, the struggles in your life. Having faith that even if God doesn't calm the storm, that He's right there with you walking through it. There's so much I could elaborate on with just that, but I'll save that for a later post. What else, the two teams were really cool. The jrs were full of energy, and I mean FULL of energy...like they would not stop talking and moving around and fidgeting lol, it kinda felt like babysitting almost at times. But it was a good reminder to not look at them from my own point of view with expectations of how someone my age would be, but to look at them from their own perspective and try to notice the little things. With the srs, I definitely felt more comfortable, you could sit down and have conversation and ask them how they're doing and such. I met and was able to talk to some really interesting people, I'm happy about that. I guess I'll make one last point about the whole conference. I did a lot of thinking throughout the four days. The amount of time you put into your teams, the other coaches, I think for me at least...what really stuck out and became super important to me was how much you put into your leadership team...meaning your coaches and your captains. I say this because you literally spend like a solid 2-4 months I would say with them, prepping, planning, getting to know them and their struggles. As much as you pour out into the conference itself, you only see the groups of kids for 2 days apiece, you see the other coaches from other teams sporadically, but you're with your own team every single moment of the day during the actual conference, and leading up you spend so much time prepping and planning and just being in each other's companies.
I tried, but I just kept writing and I know it's super long, but finally...
Thank you J, for being super cool. For making it easier for me to come out of my shell cuz you're just as foolish as I am, but you also have a maturity in you that goes beyond your age. Thank you for being someone I could lean and depend on these past few months.
Thank you J, for being bold and taking risks. Thanks for dealing with us weirdos but thank you for becoming one yourself lol. Thanks for also trusting and confiding in me despite not really knowing who I am and if I'm crazy or not.
Thank you N, for taking charge, sometimes it felt like you were the coach LOL. I really admire how much you care about people, that's not a common trait nowadays and I hope you carry that with you throughout your life. I also hope you don't stop being super positive and happy cuz it really rubs off on people.
Thank you J, for being super open about your life from the get go, it's never easy being open and honest, you seem to have a good grasp of that. As quirky as you are, I hope you never change cuz it's that boldness and self-confidence in who you are that draws people to you.
Thanks to my team for making my job hella easy, for making it feel like I was just chilling with my friends rather than having to be all responsible and parental like lol, wish y'all all the best and see y'all soon.
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