You ever wish you could stay at your job LONGER?

A year ago, you would have heard me complaining up and down about having to do team building. I couldn't believe I was expected to do this extra "chore" and run ropes courses as well. Who, me? How am I supposed to know how to process the emotions of youth? I can't believe how wrong I was about it all.

Today I worked with a group of at risk youth in a somewhat local city program. It started out shaky, and I first thought the entire day would be...well, complete crap. There are some groups who just don't want to be there and were sent there by their superiors. Those are the tricky ones, but today I got so much more out of them than I had ever expected. In fact, the two who I at first had to get just to stop their cell phones while at camp were the most productive by the end of it. I saw a kid who was just too cool to be there at all break down into the kid who was willing to help those who needed it the most while on the climbing wall. The kid he helped made it to the top.

It's amazing what kinds of transformations can happen when you create a safe emotional environment for people. Will these kids act the same way all the time? Maybe not, but I hope this one day means something for them. I know I was impressed and saw quite a bit of potential in them all.

I have to say, I even saw a better facilitator in myself today. Working with challenging groups and keeping your cool is a huge personal facilitator bonus point. I felt elated that I was able to relate to my group when I thought they would never voluntarily speak to me even if we were enduring a natural disaster. The problem is that every facilitator knows that their group deserves the best from them and that group should never notice the fact that you are getting frustrated. It is a much different matter, however, when the fact that you are human is factored in.

I maintain that being outdoors helps situations like this. I can't imagine it being as peaceful as it was in an dim enclosed room. For kids like this (and the occasional frustrated facilitator), I sometimes wonder...often you just want to escape when you're stuck in a room doing something you'd rather not be doing. But if you're already out, where else are you going to go?