I wasn’t really doing much before I joined Venture Scotland. I was going to Citadel after I left school and they suggested this programme. I’d struggled with my school attendance, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next.
The first day was probably the hardest part. You’re imagining all the worst things that could happen, but usually if you can, just go without overthinking it, it works out better than you expect. I was quite quiet for the first few weeks – I don’t really open up immediately and I was worried about speaking to all the other people. But everyone was really friendly, and by the end we were quite close.
I found that it was easier to talk to my group when we were occupied with something else. When you’re doing activities, you can speak about what you’re doing and make conversation around it, rather than having to fill silence with just talking. That made a big difference for me.
I really enjoyed canoeing and paddleboarding – I’d never done anything like that before. I’m actually thinking about buying a stand-up paddleboard because once I’m 17 and can drive, it would be cool to just have that in the back of a car and go out on the water whenever I want. I also loved the climbing, especially when the sun came out. My dad used to climb when he was younger, and I’d been climbing with him when I was really young, but hadn’t done it for a long time.
The biggest impact for me was feeling more confident speaking to other people. I kind of go through phases – I’ll go to a group and feel more comfortable speaking, then I don’t go to these things for a while and it kind of rusts up again. Venture Scotland definitely helped me speak more and feel more open to meeting people.
I’ve never been the best in big group scenarios, but the programme really helped with that. The activities they do on the first day, like person bingo where you have to find someone who has done one of the things on the card, finding different people with different things about themselves, those activities are really good for breaking the ice and getting to know people.
The programme finished about a month ago, and I’ve got an interview for college to study Social Science. I’m not sure what I want to be when I’m older, but I find psychology interesting and I’m hoping this course is a bit more all-encompassing to give me an idea of all my options. I’m also applying for a job at a local café and planning to go back to Glen Etive, where we went on the bothy trip, to do one of the Munros with a friend.
I’d definitely encourage people to do this programme. Even if it feels hard on the first day, it’s welcoming from the start, and it does get easier as you go along.