During the summer, I spent eight entire weeks on and around Vancouver Island, residing for the most part at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt and Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Quadra - both of which are military bases from the Canadian Forces. During those eight weeks, I and fourteen other cadets were trained to become military-rated engineers upon ships, and underwent intensive training, schooling and practical exams. However, the course was not only academically rigorous, but physically and mentally demanding as well, with a schedule that demanded wake-up at 6am every morning, actually using firefighting equipment to fight potential fires on the ship, bracing bulkheads and hatches from flooding and water pressure, and pressure from the possibility of being sent home if a test was failed. In addition, the course taught us all about how to deal with 14 other former strangers who were forced to spend nearly every moment awake together, to work as a team, and help each other if success was desired. I'm happy to say that this was the first year in over a decade that a clean sweep was achieved, and every cadet that signed up for the course passed, and recieved their engineering ticket.
In addition, I have also been volunteering my time with the Senior Jazz Band and Vocal Jazz in our school, both of which have had a time extension this year and result in four hours after school. I am also volunteering with the group C-Change at Lang Center, a volunteer group that puts their time and effort towards creating events for the community. I have also been helping out with a few of the administrative actions required for the swim team as a Swim Team Manager.
That summarizes my summer and what I've been involved with so far this year - looking forward to present the details about the next two terms soon!
