Teamwork: A Life Lesson Learned from an Impossible Task

The most important event of elementary school was the 6^th grade science camp field trip. It was a chance of a lifetime to get away from your daily regular routine and hang out with your friends for seven days. For those who couldn't stand school and were socially gifted this was going to be a getaway, for the ones who were more into being in the comfort of their own homes, then this would be seven days of torture. Nevertheless this was the highlight of sixth grade, the big event before our graduation. After months of anticipating and fundraising and days of packing, we arrived, 80 little children having no idea that this was no vacation.

In our two classes [or in the world] there are two types of people: the ones who work better by themselves and the ones who like to work with each other. When you're on a rocky cliff, having no safety equipment but a 20 pound backpack, you'll have no choice but to work with the person below you and the person in front of you. This bazaar task was our last one, finally for 6 days we've been hiking, learning, and writing, and observing, possibly doing every impossible-seeming task you could think of. But this, on a beautiful San Francisco Friday, was something that probably was impossible.

You are pretty much blindfolded on the way down. Being an acrophobic, you don't want to look down, because being as freaked out as I was, looking down would only mean failure. So how did we get down that vertical one mile stretch? We brainstormed, improvised, helped each other, and respected each other, and communicated [listening and questioning]. First we all stood at the top and decided on where to start. We were divided, the ones who were scared and the ones who felt that this was their moment to be courageous. Then, miraculously the two groups had approximately the same amount of people, so we put one of each between another. If one area was not easy for a person, then the person below them would stop and think to see where else his/her partner could climb down. Not only were we watching our hands and feet, we were watching the feet of the person in front of us, ready to grab them if they took a bad step. Basically your life was in the hands of the person underneath you. We asked questions, where is the next flat rock? How far are we down? Can I put my foot here? Will I survive this ridiculous climb? Every question was answered by the person below who had a bit more knowledge of the cliff than you did and after countless questions and a few tears, we got to the bottom. After all that, not one person made a joke or insulted to anybody else. Imagine climbing down a cliff by yourself not knowing what's going to happen next, it's not going to be the fear of heights that gets you this time, it's going to be the not-knowing. I'm pretty sure almost everybody in my group had not done this before [even with equipment] and we all got down alive, maybe a few with some scrapes. After asking and knowing, everybody felt a whole lot better, almost like confidence was being exchanged along with information.

Teamwork and individual work mean different things and require different skills. But the hardest and the one requiring a lot more focus is teamwork. Personally I prefer individual work, as when a project rolls along, I become pretty hoggy about my ideas [before Science Camp I was called a slave-driver when it comes to group projects, after our cliff stint my work habits improved]. That's why when you are little they encourage you to work more in groups because this is a necessary skill later on in life and its never to early for good habits. In the future more of your daily life will depend on teamwork, like your job and even raising a family.

After overcoming the cliff, the bus took us all home. Now, exhausted and homesick, we couldn't wait to go home and see all of our families and sleep in our own bed and watch morning cartoons. We did learn a lot about ourselves, nature, but mostly a little more about each other.