Year 8’s Trip to Cat Ba – Learning Resilience, Risk-taking and Gratitude

As the students arrived in Cat Ba, an action packed yet educational and engaging adventure awaited. Over the 4 days, they ventured through this vast island, participating in various activities to help them develop both socially and as individuals. Another purpose of this trip revolved around developing 3 major attributes; Risk-taking, Resilience and Gratitude. To fulfill all these criteria during this trip, the students took part in activities such as rock climbing, cycling, beach cleaning, kayaking and raft building.

Risk taking or stepping out of one’s comfort zone is a crucial attribute that the students came across throughout this trip. This was introduced to the students in many different scenarios, one rather obvious example being the challenging activities in harsh conditions. One of the first challenges the students had to face was a strenuous bicycle journey through the narrow and slippery roads of the village. The steep uphill and speedy downhill, along with a cave surrounded in darkness with barely any vision made the cycle journey undoubtedly the most dangerous activity on the trip. Another example students portrayed was when they stepped out of their social comfort zone. Some of us tend to work alone, however, on this trip, it would be impossible to survive without communication and cooperation. Teamwork was a massive part in the raft building activity, where students shared their ideas with team members and implemented them onto their rafts.

 Year 8 showed great resilience throughout the trip, breaking through their limits no matter how new or scary the activities were. Rock climbing and kayaking were the two highlights of the trip, where students had to push themselves into the stretch zone. The ‘stretch zone’ not only applies to pen and paper learning experiences, but also times like this where resilience is required for success. Many may have held enough skill to perform well during rock climbing and kayaking activities, but those who persevered through the welcoming thought of giving up were the ones successful in the end.

The trip itself was like hope in Pandora's box - within the challenges the students had to face, sprouted gratitude and appreciation for the easy life back home. Choosing to go on this trip meant that students had to deal with the sudden lack of parents looking out for them and the privileges they tend to overlook in their daily lives. Students had the opportunity to stay in a local Cat Ba village huts, where they were exposed to difficulties like bugs and constant rain. Their stay was immersed in the nature around them and, compared to the city-life they were used to in Hanoi, made them appreciate the simple, ordinary things they had. The things they considered to be a default feature in their lives became something they missed and learned to value.

After many trip-less years, the trip to Cat Ba was a refreshing start to the new term as well as the year with new experiences setting a positive mindset moving forward!

Dakyung (Year 8)