Opinion/Resources/Teen Perspective
By Teen Opinion Contributor Maggie VerDught
Photos: Deposit
This summer, during the last week of July, I attended Iowa RYLA. It stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. It is a leadership conference, sponsored by Iowa Rotary clubs from districts 5970 and 6000.
I was sponsored by my Rotary club to participate in this amazing experience. I learned a lot! My hope is that you, also, will learn something from my observations and reflections in this post.
Iowa RYLA
First off, this is a secular leadership conference. It feels like you are at a camp, but it is a conference. There is no Bible teaching. No Jesus in the messages. However, the Rotary goals and morals they taught us are similar to those we have as Christians. That week, I learned to exercise discernment in an amazing way. Every activity, every lesson, every session— I had to use discernment to think about things through a Biblical lens and worldview. Many times, I actually felt prepared for the activities we did, since I’ve gone on mission trips with extensive training beforehand.
It is difficult to explain the structure of the week, as I do not want to disclose all of the special things that make up the “Iowa RYLA magic.” However, I will share some things that I learned from the conference!
These were the main focuses of the week: On Monday, we learned about personal leadership. On Tuesday, we learned about service over self. On Wednesday, we learned about emotional leadership. On Thursday, we learned about community leadership. On Friday, we debriefed and went home in the early afternoon.
What I learned
One thing that we were forced into during the week was living in the moment. If we asked when the next activity was, our Team Lead or Rotarian would completely refuse to tell us! That was really good for me, and it allowed me to enjoy the full experience more.
I didn’t know anybody at RYLA. All I knew was that I was about to meet a bunch of new people and interact with my team all week long. The nature of the conference is like a social experiment. I found that I can make friends anywhere! Additionally, the culture is created by the staff and Rotarians, and we, the conferees, decided how to respond to that. Was xyz tradition “weird,” or would we decide to embrace it and have fun? Even if it may not be “socially acceptable” in the “real world”?
Many of our team-building activities tested my patience and ability to interact with my team members in a loving way. Sometimes certain people frustrated me a lot, and I asked God for help. I also learned a lot about my team’s unique perspectives on life. Everyone has a story to share, and we should be ready to listen.
I made new friends at RYLA. I laughed and cried with them. And I learned, once again, that first impressions and assumptions of people are sometimes totally wrong. And that can be a very good thing.
What I learned about myself
Personally, I learned (again) that I am really hard on myself as a leader and a person. I need to give myself and others more grace. Also, the best leaders are vulnerable with others. They believe in themselves and their abilities (Not in a narcissistic way, but trusting that God will bring them through and use their abilities for His glory). The best leaders focus on others, while taking good care of themselves (rest and work balance).
With that, I want to be more confident. I want to be unafraid to be vulnerable with others and ask for help when I need it. I want to appreciate my own value and worth as God’s child and stop treating myself as a failure all of the time. I want to see others, first and foremost, as people made in the image of God. I want to care less about what others think of me, and more about what God thinks of me.
Epilogue
The week after RYLA, I packed my bags the next day and headed to a Christian camp a few hours away. We do “Family Camp” every year with my own family, but this camp also offers junior, teen, and senior high camps. This summer, I made friends with several of the staff at camp, who are all roughly my age. I spontaneously decided that despite my busy schedule, I wanted to come back to work with them. And so I did. I became a camp counselor for the first time! (And I did it after a week that had already been challenging, emotionally stimulating, and full of activity!)
Being a camp counselor was difficult, yet very rewarding. I don’t regret it. I cried a few times from anxiety and feeling overwhelmed, but God was so good to me. He gave me sweet, crazy, funny, sensitive junior campers that I got to minister to and spend time with. And I got to work alongside someone who I now consider a close friend (she was the head counselor and I was the co-counselor). That was no coincidence. God has blessed me tremendously this summer.
Conclusion
Those two weeks were emotional and special in many ways. God used a secular leadership conference to grow me and teach me things I was reluctant to face. Afterwards, He used my camp experience to transform me even more! I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to do both this summer.
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“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”
Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT)
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Maggie VerDught is a high school student who enjoys learning about culture, news, and politics.
She is passionate about sharing the truth, especially with her generation. Maggie loves to run, read, and write poetry in her spare time.
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