Unity Summit

               Unity summit was an amazing time! This was basically like going to camp for 2 days, lots of fun. So we got to school Thursday morning and signed in, and were put into groups, then went on buses with our groups to the YMCA camp in Orillia. On the bus the NSA (Naturopathic Students Association) members tried to keep us awake and get us involved in some bus games, this wasn’t so bad. Once we got there we were immediately put into our groups and told that we had to come up with a skit related to our group modality (my group was manipulation, or Manip! for short). This was a little intimidating in the morning, but we had a few ideas flowing, I’ll get back to that later.

                So after getting set-up in our cabins (kind of dirty, but honestly better than what I thought, I really thought we’d be in tents or something), we met back as a big group and went through the day. There was a good mixture going back and forth between talks from guest speakers and fun events like an amazing race (Manip! won this which was awesome, especially after swimming in freezing cold water at the end and then running across camp with wet shoes!). I especially liked the talk by Bob Bernhardt, it was a lot more inspiring than the original one during orientation (which seemed a little more business, getting out the information he had to). After dinner we had more time to work on our skits, then we did some cool bonding/initation-like stuff outside, and then went inside to do our skits for everyone. My group went first and had a ton of laughs, it was lots of fun to do. Watching everyone else was lots of fun, seeing how creative everyone was. And finally the NSA did a huge skit, pretending to go through all 4 years of school; it was really funny, I was really impressed with what they came up with. After their skit was over, we had a sudden breakout into a dance party which was awesome and lots of fun. The night finished off with a bonfire in the grotto, which was a great time making smores and listen to some talented people play guitar while we sang along and made new friends.

                The next day was also great with more fun activities and speakers. The final activity was another really cool intiation-trust exercise, and by the time we were on the bus going home I really felt part of a new community. Overall unity summit was a really great experience and I highly recommend anyone who goes to CCNM in the future make sure the take part in it. I am definitely considering being a unity summit leader in the future because I know how much fun it was and can be for everyone. It’s was also a really great way to get to know a lot of the people in the program, and I feel a lot less intimidated by the group now.

                                 (aerial shot of the camp, it's a really green and beautiful place)