To the next level.

I got pretty excited once I read the information and equipment list I had been sent for the assessment weekend.  It seemed to me like a big old Scout camp, which was fine with me.  It was even taking place at a Scout campsite.

The assessment weekend was taking place in a place called East Grinstead on 2 and 3 March.  No, I'd never heard of it either.  Google Maps told me it was down south.

It was starting at 9am on a Saturday, and because I'm a public transport monkey, it meant having to go down the evening before and get a B&B for the Friday night.  Every single train I got on was delayed - Birmingham to Euston by over half an hour, Euston to Victoria by ten minutes, and Victoria to East Grinstead delayed for about 20 minutes at Hurst Green, and eventually cancelled completely.  So there I was, hanging around this train station, in the middle of nowhere, with a replacement train unable to arrive because the broken train couldn't move from the platform, no taxis outside the station, no numbers for taxis on display anywhere, no internet on the phone I was using to Google "taxi hurst green", so pretty much generally stranded.  Then some total hero said he could bring two to East Grinstead - his wife had come to collect him.  Oddly enough, I was the only person who went with them.  They dropped me right outside the B&B.  A good ending, and it was obvious that the adventure had already begun.

In the B&B, I met a girl who was also there for the Raleigh International assessment weekend.  She already had a taxi booked, so I said I'd be happy to split the cost with her.  The following morning at breakfast, we met another man who was also attending the weekend.

We got to the campsite, filled in a bunch of forms, and got split into teams.  We played a few games getting to know each other's names, and then it was straight into some activities focussed on us working together as a team.

It was nice to meet total strangers who turned out to be an outstanding bunch of people and to bond so quickly with them and to share the experience with them.  It was fun to regress into being a teenage Scout again, trudging about in the muck and in the dark, and eating from a Trangia, and playing silly games.

I came home feeling so reinvigorated and alive like I haven't felt in years.  All I could think was that should Raleigh not want me, I'd be looking to get back involved with Scouting.  I remembered that stopping Scouting was never a conscious decision, it just dwindled where I grew up because so few people wanted to move up to Venturers.

Regardless of what else what might happen, I learned a hell of a lot about myself, giving me food for thought about what I'm doing and where I'm going.  Which was needed.  Badly.