It was a sweltering ninety-nine degrees and the moisture lingering in the air penetrated through clothes and made them cling to skin. The sun was playing hide and go seek behind the clouds of smog in the sky, and shade held no shelter. The two bottles of cold water in my hands turned warm in a matter of minutes and it made me more thirsty and hot. I was told that the weather is this way all the time in Washington D.C. .
We were gathered from all over the nation for an annual National Student Leadership Conference. There were approximately two hundred young people and we were all divided into groups of sixteen. Our goal was, as representatives of certain countries of the UN, to learn how to become good effective leaders. Among other factors we were there to make friends and bonds that would last a lifetime, over a ten-day period. Our group was quite diverse; we had everything from your typical class clown to the valley girl with golden blonde hair. It was obvious that it was going to take work to make us come together.
Our coordinator thought the best way for us to learn how to trust one another was a ropes course. It was a park filled with group activities that required everyone's participation for the results. The main event was a rope walking simulation. Our goal was to get all of the members in our group across a suspended rope that was attached to two upright logs. The main question on our minds was, "Is it possible?" The middle aged, raggedy woman that was there to explain the rules and reassured us that it has been done. We were to do this by linking arms and slowly moving along the rope sideways while trying to balance our weight and that of our neighbor. .
As we started the sweat that was already drenching our bodies began to pour in. We pushed our differences aside and went in for the kill; determination was our key to the accomplishment. The struggle to concentrate on so many things made it nearly impossible to not try to take your teammates down with you.