Ropes Course

So, my FYE class did the Southern Adventures Ropes Course the other day instead of having class…I was super excited about it. To start off, they made us pass around a ball and address the person that threw it to us, and the person we threw it to. Although it was super confusing once we got more than one ball going, it was a pretty cool way of learning everyones name. Next, we did the human knot. Haha, my group couldn’t get out out the knot…I guess we tied ourselves up pretty good. The other group did it pretty fast. What I learned from this activity is that communication within a group is very important, especially when trying to solve a problem. Next we moved onto the actual low ropes course. We were told to balance ourselves on this log. (the entire class on the same log, that is!!) Then we were told to pick our favorite animal and keep it a secret in our head (still, all while balancing on this log). Then we were told that we were not allowed to speak, and that we had to get our animals in order on the log, from smallest to biggest, WITHOUT TALKING! The only way we could communicate with by making our animal’s noise. This was tough…we were only allowed to have “three touches.” And once we used those three touches, we had to start all over. It took us a while to figure it out, and eventually we did! 🙂 I think that this was good for us to get to know each other, and learn how to work as a group. It also helped us think outside of the box. The last thing we did was, we were blind folded and led to this place with all these ropes. The class was scattered throughout the ropes, and we were told we could only ask two questions “am I good?” or “can I get some help?” Confused like normal, I was the first one to ask if I could have some help… I was told to take my blindfold off and go outside the ropes. It was ironic because most people thought they were following the rope to find the end…However, there was no end. The point of the activity was to ask for help. I guess this was a good lesson because when you are confused about something, you should ask for help.

I think that this helped us “communicate” and work as a team. This ties in with our theme “Making Connections” because by talking together, and working together we were able to communicate in a fun environment.  I think that we might benefit from going back later in the semester because we will know one another a little better, and we might think ahead before we “knot ourselves up.” I thought this was a cool experience because we got to learn about how important communication is in another way than just sitting in a class room. I think that what we have learned at Southern Adventures will be beneficial for future class activities because we have learned that communication is very important. It is also important to know one another in order to work together, and maybe even knowing someones name wouldn’t hurt either.