Day Three in Bamfield

I think I understand what Mr. Matheny means now. 

1. Absorb everything you experience, and write it down so you don’t forget
2. Day three is inevitable
3. You won’t like everyone but respect them and they’ll respect you
4. It’s all about COMMUNICATION!!!!
5. Everyone is different, accept it, and work with what you have

Bamfield came and passed way too quickly that I can’t seem to recollect all my thoughts of everything that had happened. I regret Day Three, just a bit, and I wish I had taken Mr. Matheny’s advice and wrote everything down, since I’m beginning to forget my thoughts.  I found out every one’s character is different, and I must learn to accept them, and working in a group, it’s ALL ABOUT COMMUNICATION!!!

This experience feels as through it was training for Mongolia.  My whole group had a diverse set of characters, where we hit all the personalities of the class’s sheet game that led to chaos.  I felt a bit overwhelmed sometimes, some moments more then others, but the day we had to choose our topic, I recognized how the ‘boss’ really works.  The boss’s voice raises as an opposing idea comes up, making it seem like the louder they are, the more correct they are (where they really aren’t sometimes).  This was what led to my frustrations on the third day. 

I had found out a fault in our method of our lab so I tried to tell the rest of the group over and over, yet about four of them continued to yell over my voice.  I didn’t call them any names or say anything against them, though I was probably thinking about it at the time, but I had to pull a ‘Mr. Ryan’ (loud teacher in school- yell at the top of my lungs), yelling “BE QUIET!” I didn’t say those exact words, but you get my point.  I was angry, tired, cold, and wanted our lab problem-less, yet things don’t always go as planned.

I think I scared them a bit, since I’m a happy-go-lucky person usually, yet I felt like it had to be done, though it could have been done better and differently.  They listened, and one told me “I agree with you, 100% but we don’t have time to fix it.”  I realized no one had a solution for this problem, so, since I found the dilemma, I figured I needed to solve it.  I did too, in the end.  I was pretty grouchy when I was fixing it, since I had to repeat the same chore over and over, while everyone else seemed to be having fun (since our project was being successful, and the method for the experiment was extremely clever- just had to be fun).  Overall it was fixed, and everything was good in the end.  Though I only told you about my behaviour on the third day, I can honestly say every person in my group was mad or frustrated with someone else and carried out their angers in different ways (some worse then mine). 

Bamfield was fantastic.  My group, (by the end and doing the laid-back activities) worked great together.  We knew what was needed to be done and we did it, with random complications in between.  I am now starting to see a vague haze of what the Mongolia trip will be like, though instead of only four-five days, it will be two weeks.  I’m scared for the future, and hope I know how to make the right choices when a problem approachs me.  Every experience I have right now relates to this trip, one way or another and I need to take advantage of it every chance I get.