Paddling outside of my comfort zone – exploring the northcoast of Vancouver Island 2020.

Waiting for a sizeable thunderstorm to roll through, contemplating how to launch boats into the breaks.

In 2020, I paddled my sea kayak around the northern point of Vancouver Island with some of my closest friends. This section is highly exposed to strong current, weather and waves. There is not much else between what is dominantly called Cape Scott and Japan. This trip required more emotional effort from me than I ever expected. The mess of waves crashing against the current and unrelenting wind mirrored the state of the word which I had taken leave from (2020!). Having spent plenty of days in a sea kayak and feeling rather confident in my abilities, I was sidestruck by the difficulty I had rain and shine on this trip. Eventually, I recognized that this was not a time for me to try and assert myself as a leader. There was no space for ego or extrinsic motivation. I include this moment in my experiential learning journey because stepping back and finding ways to support my team from a position other than leadership was incredibly valuable. Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is say I need help and practice trusting others to guide you home. Once I let go of the pressure and the reigns, I began to learn so much and enjoy the journey and the process.

This is a screen shot taken from Native-land.ca. On this journey around the northern end of the island, we moved across the land and waters of the Kwakwaka’wakw  and Quatsino  peoples.

Thank you for reading about some of my experiential learning journeys. For more information about my professional and academic journeys, please visit the menu at the top of the page.

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