Being adventurous was always very discouraged by my mom. Still to this day she is very against my adventures. It was not until I first started university in 2015 that I started being more adventurous and enjoying the outdoors. Hiking more, rock climbing, short road trips to go climbing, etc. The first time I went rock climbing (my mom was not happy) was in the fall of 2015. Since my first time climbing, I have found myself to be very interested in this sport and could spend days climbing and watching other’s climb. I believe that the new-found passion I have for adventure just keeps developing and one of my goals in the future would be to travel the world in order to experience everything I really want to. I am hoping to one day be able to travel for work and bring other individuals alongside to experience other countries and cultures. And of course, rock climb a little.
The one thing that my mom was not against was my empathy towards others. I have always had a heart for helping others. Whether it be my family or anyone else, I knew I wanted to do something in a field where I could help others for a while. I believe that the empathy I have towards others is really what is pushing me towards my goal of helping. I just needed to find the way in which I could achieve that and well, adventure therapy would be that way!
My academic interest would be mostly psychology, sociology, social work, and adventure. I am very interested in working with individuals in an adventure setting and I believe that these fields would help me have a better understanding of individuals and their actions and thoughts. I still want to learn a lot about all of the subjects I am interested in. I am looking at getting different certifications in the adventure field. As for the subject of social work, I think it is important to learn the ways in which you should interact with individuals. This includes the study of psychology and sociology as well.
I had studied social work for a full year and roughly half a semester before realizing that I was not so much interested in this type of work. Although all of the required classes and electives were interesting to me, and still are interesting, I just found myself struggling when being in an intervention setting one-on-one. I also have a hard time sitting still for a long period of time and so taking the therapy outside and leading group activities would be the best way for me to stay in a field where I get to help people as I had originally planned. My interest in adventure therapy grew in a class I took in the winter of 2017, political economy of social welfare. One of the project for this course was to create an organization, do a proposal, and then present the organization and the programming to the class. After doing research about the subject and reading a lot of articles, looking at websites and the program that they offered, I ended up being more excited about this subject. I am still finding myself smiling and excited when reading research papers on this topic.
In 2012, I ended up going to Jamaica for two weeks to help build houses. This volunteering experience has proved to be an amazing and overly rewarding. This experience showed me that here, in Canada, we are very privileged with everything we have. I feel as though we take a lot for granted, we like material things, and spend too much time worrying about things that are not worth it. It is inspiring me to start minimizing the things I own. It was also truly astonishing seeing how happy children were when given deflated balloons, bracelets, necklaces, etc., items that we don’t really care for here. I think experiences like these would truly be eye opening to a lot of individuals. It was rewarding to me as I got to help individuals I had never met before. I got to know them and the culture a little better as I spent time immersed in the community. However, one of the struggles I had when being in Jamaica was the language. Although we both spoke English, my English was very limited as I had not been speaking English for very long. They also had different accents than what I was used to and so communication was an issue that I had to overcome. They have shown me that being patient and attentive are two very important skills when travelling and helping others.
I think I ended up in interdisciplinary studies because I am interested in so many different fields of study as well as a goal that is often unheard of. I get asked “what is adventure… whatever you said?” mostly every time I get asked what I am studying. As this type of therapy is gaining popularity in Canada, I hope that individuals recognize how effective it has proven to be so far as well as how rewarding it is to just spend time outdoors.
