Garden International School Student, Raashi Basu, reflects on her JUMP! experience.
Imagine an action sequence where the girl is running away from baddies with guns. She keeps on running until she reaches the end of the cliff. It’s a small mountain, a really small mountain and at the bottom of that mountain stands a hundred people waiting for her to jump whilst they assure her that they will catch her. “JUMP!” they all scream (no pun intended), but this girl would rather die than jump into the arms of these hundred people.
Well, on a smaller scale it would be the ‘trust exercise’; falling into the arms of your partner. Even that was an arduous task for me. The fear of being let down plagued my head, so much so that the thought of even trying sounded ludicrous to me. This prohibited me from working effectively in a team, made me prefer to do all tasks by myself.
From the very beginning the JUMP! instructors, Lena and James, were very forthcoming and considerate, helping people get out of their comfort cocoon. They helped me feel more comfortable in a group with the group circles and exhilarating tasks. What used to be an extremely awkward situation with me fumbling to find words to the question “how are you?” was turned into a not-so-awkward-situation.
Embarrassing myself is one of my fortes and participating in the JUMP! activities gave me the perfect stage to do so. Though the discussions were profound, for the first time in forever I felt that I truly learnt something about my class. The ‘growth mountain’ was such a simple task, but the results were amazing; not only did we learn everyone’s strength, we also learnt our weaknesses. There was a sudden realisation that swept the classroom, we are not alone.
Knowing that I wasn’t the only one with flaws and scars created a sense of homogeneity. We are all the same, and this realisation enabled me to proceed forward and achieve more. The JUMP! programme is an amazing way to find ‘yourself’ and mould a new you. There aren’t enough words to express the gratitude I feel towards the JUMP! programme and the instructors, Lena and James, but I shall start with a thank you.