Living with 11 other people was a huge challenge for me but after going down things like killer waterfalls in kayaks and tramping together for a few days we just become a huge, slightly dysfunctional family.
Being pushed out of your comfort zone every minute of every day can seem at times stupid but once you have reached the top of the rock climbing, or once you make it across the high ropes, you feel a rush of joy and happiness _ adrenaline.
This is called type two fun.
You might not see it as fun at the time but afterwards you see how fun it actually was.
I unfortunately got injured, tore a muscle in my leg badly and got sent home early without my certificate.
You can say I stumbled on the finish line but I'm planning on going back next year to complete the whole course.
Richard Batchelar
A lot of different words could describe my Outward Bound experience but the one I would say most relates to me would be life-changing.
The 21 days I was there we did everything from sailing a cutter as a team to a three-day solo in the bush, all of which changed me and made me evaluate myself.
One of the best things I could say about the trip was working with my watch group.
Your watch group is your family while you are there and the 11 unique and different individuals I was with made the course extremely fun and enjoyable.
The activities we did like tramping, kayaking, high ropes and rock climbing all pushed me outside my comfort zone and opened my eyes to activities I would never try back in normal life.
The experiences and people I met on Outward Bound will stay with me forever and I doubt I will forget a single moment of the trip.
As the instructors quoted at the end of the course: "It's not the end of Outward Bound, it's just the start.''
Laleyna Vail
I was lucky enough to go on Outward Bound as I turned 18 just 12 days before the course started.
Our local Rotary club awarded me a full scholarship to go, all expenses paid, and even though I heard lots about how challenging Outward Bound was I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We did a lot of group activities with the 12 other people in our watch and I found the experience had a lot more to do with the mental side of things.
We practised falling with our eyes closed into another team member, trusting they would be watching and catch us.
We even got pushed off the jetty in kayaks, tipped over, and then held our breath and waited while two other team
members jumped off the jetty and attempted (usually successfully) to roll us back over.
Another experience which stood out for me was writing down all the excuses we ever had for not doing anything.
These included things like "I'm too tired'', ``I'll do it tomorrow'' or "I won't be good at it'' and burned them as a group. It was an amazing visual metaphor. I still see them to this day when I hear myself protesting about something I really should be doing.
The single most important thing I took away from those three weeks was that attitude is everything.
One of my instructors said to me: "You can choose to be cold, wet and miserable or just cold and wet.''
Once I had a positive mindset of "I can do this'' everything became half as hard and twice as enjoyable.
It was a life-changing, fabulous journey of self discovery and I would highly recommend everyone to do an Outward Bound course at some point in their life.
It does not matter the age or the fitness as there are a variety of courses and they are something not to be missed.
