3 minute read
Keep Your Eyes on the Rock
"Keep going, but don't look down. Look straight ahead and keep your eyes on the rock in front of you!"
The event was the Alberta Conference ninth grade Outdoor Education trip near Nordegg. At the time, I was teaching ninth grade, so I found myself privileged to be attending this annual event alongside my students who were thrilled about tenting, sleeping on the ground, outhouses, and feasting on Ichiban noodles for three days. I, on the other hand… well, let's just say I must have really loved my students because the accommodations and meal plan weren't exactly my idea of luxury. However, I was excited to be there and share in the experiences that this event afforded.
Along with numerous other daily activities, rock rappelling was a popular activity in which all the program attendees were encouraged to participate, including teachers. Not wanting to show my age or fear and being driven by proving to my students I could keep up with them, I agreed to rappel. “Rappelling is the most dangerous—and frightening—part of climbing… Rappelling uses friction for a controlled descent. The most common way to rappel is to thread the rope through a specialized belay/rappel device attached to your harness with a locking carabiner.” Did I mention I really loved my students?
To make a long story short, it came to my turn to step over the edge of a rock cliff, my life depending on a rope tied with one knot to a tree. The first mistake I made was to look down to see how far the ground was below me. Panic set in. I felt I couldn’t let myself go down even one inch further, but I was already on the rock face, so I couldn't go back up either. My students were at the top, cheering me on, shouting words of encouragement. Through the noise of the applause, one voice seemed to rise above the others: “Keep going, but don't look down. Look straight ahead and keep your eyes on the rock in front of you!”
As those words played in my mind, I slowly inched my way down the rock face. One hand over the other, one breath at a time, keeping my eyes forward and on the rock. Never have I been so relieved to feel my feet touch the soil. I had kept my eyes on the rock and made it safely to land. The thunderous cheers from above made me feel like I had just won an Oscar for rappelling. I definitely felt like I had earned a medal!
“Look straight ahead and keep your eyes on the rock.” As a society, the times in which we are living are challenging. We are facing fears and unknowns. Educators, students, and parents are having to navigate a “new normal”: daily health checklists, temperature taking, school cohorts, mask-wearing, the list goes on. However, through the difficulties, we have the promise of a Rock—a Rock to which we can cling;. a Rock on which to focus; a Rock that will help us land on solid ground.
Thank you to the teachers and principals who daily demonstrate courage and resilience by loving each student in their care. Thank you to the students who are being so brave to keep going in a dysregulated world. And thank you to the parents who daily entrust us with their most precious commodity: their children. Together, we will keep our eyes on the Rock and cheering each other on. We will come out stronger for having gone through the experience together.
(Deuteronomy 32:4)
Ronda Ziakris Director/Education
