First Day of YMP
My first day at the YMP boot camp I can say was quite interesting. I came in a bit too early and just sat down to the most attractive rolly chair and got acquainted with the other people who arrived about half an hour early quickly becoming entertained with the new crowd. finally once everyone arrived and signed into the program we were given a small introduction and afterwards mainly spent the first part of the day getting to know the group better through a variety of group building activities in order to expand our communication skills and just to simply get to know each other better and finding similarities in interests, ideas, and life experiences.
We did many small activities such as moving to different sides of the room if you agreed, disagreed, or were indifferent to whatever questions were asked from if you like pancakes to your views on racism and then sharing your thoughts on why you feel that way about the question and other activities such as where you had to get everyone organized from youngest to oldest without saying a single word and finding alternative forms to communicate, in which everyone used their fingers to count out the month and year or tapped their foot on the ground. The activity did take some time but everyone was able to organize themselves with not many mistakes and misunderstandings.
After about 5 activities with breaks in between, we had a thirty minute lunch and talked to each other. We then got back on track and did a some few final small activities, one being called landmines; I believe, where we had to help get one person from one side of the floor to another as a group by telling him where to step without stepping on any of the items thrown on the floor. After this activity. we all did this huge group building project the rest of the day where we were to collect supplies by answering questions about hip hop (which no one in our group knew anything about) and were given cards you could use against the other groups to gain their materials by making bets and challenging them with art, dances, or free styling, or sending one of their members to “jail” so they couldn’t contribute to their group. each building we made were worth a certain amount of points. the goal was to get the most points and build the best society. In the end the group to win and build the best society won by becoming allies with the other groups and sticking to their buildings, and staying away from any fude with the other groups. Although I must say their group had the advantage of having a group member that knew all about hip hop in order to gain the supplies to build their society.
Over all I will say I enjoyed my first day at the YMP boot camp and am certainly looking forward to the next 8 hour days and all the activities they have included for us to hopefully gain a gold South by Southwest Badge.
