Every year the young person cancer charity Teens Unite has a five-day residential that involves rock climbing, karaoke, canoeing, archery, massages, good food, quizzes, martial arts, junk percussion and loads more! I have been fortunate enough to attend a lot of residentials in my life but I can arguably say that this has been my favourite😁 and I think it’s because all these activities gave us a chance to support each other/get to know each other in various fun ways to the point where I felt comfortable being myself.
I am so grateful that with the mix of staff, volunteers and young people nobody was left out in the activity stay and you could talk to various people without feeling like an outsider😁. My face has always been a factor that I felt like I needed to consider when trying to make new friends but by going into this activity stay and showing my authentic self, I felt safe and happy in knowing that I was within a community that just liked me for me. It was great!
First Day🌞🤗
Apart from Rebecka and I train breaking down, platform mishaps and the long waiting time, we surprisingly made it to the activity stay in one piece. We arrived to smiling faces, glorious food and drinks that were displayed out on the table for us consume and just a nice atmosphere😁, so far everything looked like it was going great and I felt comfortable. (Rebecka and I were the last ones to arrive, so it did feel a bit awks but in the end, it wasn't a big deal). The rest of the day involved building the tallest balloon tower (my group won of course 😂), getting to know each other and fun quizzes. I have never jelled so quickly with a group of people in just one day, it was great! I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the activity stay would include.
I would also like to applaud Teens Unite for creating a Facebook group before the residential because it gave us the chance to know each other beforehand. I truly believe it aided us in creating friendships a lot quicker.
Pictures of the first day ⭐
Second Day 🎨👨🏾🎨
The second day was very action-packed, I did martial arts, drawing, junk percussion and my first ever interview with a facial difference. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and loved that it was very physical because we got the chance to be creative and have fun with each other.
Martial arts and mindfulness - The martial arts were intense and funny because everyone became so serious! I was partnered with people who are naturally quiet and shy but then turn into an absolute beast when we did partner work 😂. It was great. I also really liked the mindfulness/meditation session because I believed it introduced people to a whole new aspect of being mindful of the present and not worrying about the past or future. I know that I personally benefited from mindfulness throughout my cancer journey, so it's nice that the other young people were open to that as well.
(dunno what I am doing but...there you go 😂)
Drawing - I am not an artistic person by nature, but I was interested as well as excited to participate in this next activity because we got to draw a self-portrait of our partner (did I cheat by getting help from the teacher? yes, but it was still very good at it 😂). This activity also gave me a chance to meet a brand-new friend who, unknowingly to me at the time, would become the closest friend I would make throughout this whole experience. Chi was very quiet and shy when we first met, but once she came out of her shell she started to open up and show her goofy side which resulted in us becoming close friends really quick.
Junk percussion - I have done junk percussion before, but it has never been as free and explorative then it was at the activity stay 😁. It didn't matter if you had done junk percussion before or not - everyone was just having fun by taking part. (I also got a chance to show off my sick rhythm skills, so I was proud of that).
My First Ever Interview! 💚💜
I have been asked to do interviews before, but I always felt self-conscious because of how I looked. I made the conscious decision that whilst I was on the trip I would try to do things that challenged me, which is why when Lawrence (the awesome videographer that works for Teens Unite) asked me to do an interview I (of course) said yes.
This is the interview I did at the activity stay:
I am so thankful to Lawrence for being patient, kind and understanding throughout the whole interview process because it put me at ease, and it made my anxiety about being interviewed completely disappear. I never would have done this interview if I didn't feel completely comfortable, so I'm happy I was in an environment where I felt safe doing it.
Third Day 📖🎤
By the third day, people were starting to get comfortable with each other and new friendships were starting to form. I became very excited to see what each day would entail because it seemed that every day was different than the last, which kept things exciting. On this day we had an apprentice challenge in the morning and a karaoke party in the afternoon, it was amazing!
First was the apprentice challenge, where we were split off into separate groups, with various business owners, to help create a new Teens Unite T-shirt. I liked the apprentice challenge because not only did it give us a chance to be creative by designing a t-shirt using diagrams and an online design program, but also it gave us a chance to pitch our ideas to an audience whilst working together as a team. I learned a lot about presenting and business skills through this challenge, and I truly believed it helped shape me into becoming more confident in my public speaking. Next, was karaoke night and omg it was probably the highlight of the entire experience it was so much fun. I got to sing Miley Cyrus (of course), Queen (yas), High School Musical (double win) and many awesome songs with various people that I felt 100% in my element. I even made a new friend in Leighton which is literally the funniest dude I met on my journey and my karaoke partner throughout the whole night. It was just great; my confidence was through the roof!
Overall, I learned a lot about myself on this day by learning new skills and having fun. If you are ever fortunate enough to attend a Teens Unite karaoke session - you are living the life 😜.
The Apprentice challenge:
(here is us doing some awsome karaoke below! it's a shame that I didn't catch my friend and I singing some classic Miley Cyrus but that's fine lmao)
Fourth Day 🧗🏾♀️🛶
Day four was the most nerve-wracking because we were spending most of the day canoeing…(on the water), and seeing as I can't swim, this had me feeling some type of way 😬. Regardless, I didn't make my fear stop me from participating because archery and rock climbing was also on the agenda, so I just focused on that part of the day and hoped for the best 😂.
Long story short, I was so ridiculously bad at archery I can't even joke about it😂. I know that I tried my best but I just gave up halfway through when I kept on shooting the arrow yards away from its target😬, but surprisingly I bossed the canoeing more than I thought that I would and it turned out to be an enjoyable experience. It was very calm and still once we went onto the water and the visualisations were so amazing that a camera wouldn't do it much justice. I loved that we went on the water once the sun was setting because we got to experience the beauty of the moment and it was really nice. Other than that, we also did a canoe race (our group won 🎉), a paddle challenge where we had to put our paddle under the boat and try to catch it from the other side and later on we did some rock climbing which was amazing as well because the whole group supported each other and it was a very enduring experience.
(I did feel like katniss with this bow though😂)
( but what is that form below? I'm facing the bow the wrong way!😂😂)
All jokes aside everything about this day was great and I'm glad I did another thing that pushed myself beyond my limits because it truly allowed me to grow as a person😁.
The pictures below are from when we did rock climbing. I absolutely enjoyed it because it made me realise how fearless I had became as the day progressed. I shot an arrow into a bush, I conquered my fear of water and I was the first one to always volunteer to do things because I was so excited. 😁 I believe the rock climbing, as a result, was a cakewalk (kind of 😉)
Fifth Day 🎉👯♂️
It was the final day of the Teens Unite activity stay and even though it was very sad because I didn't want to leave, it was very enjoyable because we had a great full day. The day involved pitching our teens unite t-shirt to a panel to then finish off the day with a big party celebration celebrating all of what we achieved during the activity stay😁. I was nervous, excited, sad and joyful but overall proud because we ended this amazing week on a high note, and everybody was happy with the person they became by the end of it.
T-shirt pitch: I was pretty confident with our t-shirt design because our group not only put a lot of thought into the t-shirt but we also helped each other a lot through the process. We told the panel our purpose for the design, where we would like people to see our t-shirts, how much it would cost, the little details that made it unique and overall tried our best to sell the t-shirt idea so that they would consider it as a Teens Unite T-shirt. Unfortunately, our group did not win but I still welcome the experience because it enabled me to move out of my comfort zone and experience what it felt like to pitch an idea to an audience.
Description of t-shirt: a grey neutral t-shirt that we thought was suitable because it could be worn by everyone, had a purple smiley face at the side to represent the Teens Unite smile, a quote on the sleeve of the shirt about love and support and finally, a tag of how many young people are diagnosed per hour in the UK to help highlight the importance of what buying the t-shirt would do to help loads of young people.
Looking back at it now I can honestly say that our group could have been a lot more explorative with our design and taken more risk as a creative team, but regardless this was a great learning experience for next time and I know in the future we will try to be more artistic.
Part-ay!! 🎉
I loved it, it was a celebration of all of the friends, experiences and bonds we made and it was just a great excuse (for me) to dress up and enjoy ourselves for the last hurrah. I was a bit mortified when they shared the interview I did with Lawerence in front of all the mayors, business owners and important people in attendance 😂😂 but it was still a fun time, and I will never forget how positive it made me feel.
Overall, I am so glad that I attended the Teens Unite activity stay because not only did I find a group of friends who accept and appreciate me for who I am, but also it enabled me to experience a giant shift within my personality, values and confidence that has resulted in me transforming into a whole new person. I was lost before the Teens Unite activity stay, and I had difficulty making long-lasting friendships, but thankfully the residentials and community are proof that it can all change for anybody.
Gratitude
A massive thank you to Debbie (the co-founder for Teens Unite) for creating this amazing charity and activity stay. I am in complete admiration for your dedication to the young people involved in this charity, and I’m so blessed to have the fortune of being a part of something so amazing. Thank you.
Thank you, Yasmin (Teens Unite executive) for your kindness, energy and softness that you brought to the activity stay. I felt like I could approach you with any concerns I had, and I felt totally safe.
Thank you, Claire for making sure that Rebecka and I didn’t get lost on our first London tube journey and for being a ray of light that we fully trusted and loved.
A massive thank-you to Ashleigh for her awesome social media skills and kindness, also to Lawrence for your continued patience and humouring me by laughing at my bad jokes.
Overall, I am so grateful to have met every volunteer, staff, teacher and young person on this trip because I truly felt a part of the community and so comfortable with being myself. Until next time, I cannot wait to write about how we partied it up at the reunion!
Thank you for reading and if you would like to spare some change to keep these amazing residentials going for young people like me, click here https://www.teensunite.org/donate/(even if its as little as £5)
Thank you and I hope you have a nice day <33
- Crystal x