Well today was absolutely insane. The Program Assistants were not lying when they said that Open Day would be the longest day of Shad. Before today, I would never have believed that there could be a “Longest Day of Shad”. Every day here at Shad Valley Waterloo is so jam packed with activity that we wake up exhausted, go through the day exhausted and fall asleep exhausted. And you know what the best part is? We love every minute of it. Open Day turned out to be one of the most amazing days of Shad yet. What is Open Day you might ask? Well, we woke up to our customary 7 A.M. alarm, dozily fumbled through breakfast and then shuffled in to our first Whole Group Session of the day. But instead of the standard lecture from one of the faculty, we were presented with a schedule for the day. Man, I thought the “usual” Shad day was busy? This was RIDICULOUS. It seemed like we had a new thing to do every 15 minutes.
In true Shad form, we did not let this overwhelming schedule phase us. Instead, we pulled out our Waterloo Crew notebooks and calmly copied down the entire schedule. After that, we went to work. The next 13 hours (9:00 am to 10:00 pm) would consist of set up and cleanup, a tree planting ceremony, an awards lunch, Open Day, the banquet and finally Variety Night. Open Day was a chance for people from outside of Shad such as family members and representatives from RIM to come check out what Shad Valley is all about. We had all of our design projects on display as well as posters that described some of the lectures and workshops we participated in. The banquet consisted of some delicious food from the Conrad Grebel cafeteria. Variety Night was an incredible display of Shad Valley Waterloo talent. There was singing, piano, magic tricks and even a Korean pop dance performance.
I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate the end of a journey that has brought together 48 amazing individuals and pushed us out of our comfort zones and into our growth zones. Shad Valley has been an absolutely incredible experience. It is sad to see this come to an end, but at the same time I know that I have learned so much and made so many great connections with so many people.
Bryson out.
Bryson McLachlan, Shad Valley University of Waterloo 2010
Hometown: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
