Take Two: Learning the Ropes of Leadership

Listen, I'm not sure if you've spent a full morning and afternoon in the Oklahoma heat and humidity, but it will rock your world if you aren't used to it. Lucky for us, we made it through the day!

This morning we woke up, loaded the bus, and headed to Team Quest Challenge Course just off of Highway 9 in Norman. We started off the day with a series of fun, yet challenging team-building exercises.

Practicing "communication" skills.

Promoting world peace.

I have to be honest, I have no idea what is going on in this picture. 

Enjoying life as "royalty."

Utilizing the entire group to send people over the wall. 

After a delicious round of sandwiches delivered to us from Jason's Deli for lunch, we headed down a dirt path and through the clearing to the dreaded High Ropes. 

They really look like they are dreading this, don't they?

Walking across a moving platform while suspended 30' in the air.  

Yours truly, just hangin' out.

Next, the team headed to Sarkeys Foundation on Main Street Norman to enjoy a dinner of Hideaway Pizza and a thought provoking round of "You Be The Judge," facilitated by the Honorable Jim Winchester, former Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. During this exercise, we were presented with 3 felony crimes with background information and given several different options of punishment for each crime. Wheels were turning as we discussed our individual choices of punishment; highly differing opinions ran rampant around the room, but we certainly were able to learn a lot just by viewing things from a different perspective. My personal dream is to be an attorney, so getting inside of these students' brains was an eye-opening experience for even me.

Honorable Jim Winchester explains the "You Be The Judge" exercise.

Upon completion of our time at Sarkeys Foundation, we departed for Lawton in southwest Oklahoma. By popular vote, we passed the time by watching the hilarious, yet sadly 98% realistic Mean Girls. Yup, even the guys were up for it. Once we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express, we unpacked, relaxed, and bonded a little bit more. We hit the sack (well, not this guy!) at 10:15 so that we can be prepared for tomorrow's 5:00 a.m. wake-up call.

We begin our Tuesday adventure at Fort Sill doing PT training and then a tour of the base. Keep following us on Facebook and Twitter (@ylokylok) for random and/or instant updates throughout the day! I'll leave you with two quotes from a couple of members of Class XII:

"Oh gosh, there is only one Port-A-Potty..." - Daniel McClain

“I never knew leaders defined metaphorically was 'those who climb walls and lose shoes.' I guess it’s safe to say after all the sweating we did, we learned the true value of Hi-Gene**!” - Rachel Reardon

**Note: Gene was our EXCEPTIONAL bus driver today. We greated him with "Hi, Gene" each time we saw him. Just a clean joke... (Gene came up with that one too, if you caught it).