You cannot discover new oceans, unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

You may have discovered by now that I am very fond of quotes by famous people and the not-so-famous people. I like to make a note of it whenever I come across anything interesting like this, while reading something, and then refer to it when I feel the need. So you wonderful people get to read new ones every week! I found the above-mentioned quote very apt for the excitement and adventure that I, along with twenty children and a few adults, had on this weekend gone by. I had mentioned an overnight camping and adventure trip that we were going to take, a few articles back. We went on a trip to Hathipaon (near Mussoorie), where a good friend, Rajeev, has been running an adventure camp for many years. Well, this past weekend was a revelation in many ways, to me as well as the children who went along. It was a trip where the adults went back to being children and the children were almost like adults! The children's ages ranged from 5-16, and each of them surprised me in their own way!
Despite their difference in ages, what was common was that none of them had been on an overnight trip like this without their parents, slept in tents before, taken care of their own belongings and valuables, hiked for so many kilometres (a lot of them uphill!)! They climbed steep rocks, did rappelling, monkey-crawling, walking across rope-bridges, night-walking, finding their way back just with compass directions and a few clues, bird watching, astronomy and star-gazing, tent-pitching,....! It was amazing! Not one of the kids, not even the five-year old, stayed out of any activity! I had expected some falling out, but the children's eagerness, their bravery, confidence and determination to try out new things, was a most welcome surprise! Needless to say, all of us had a great time, some of it hilarious even, when I was up on the rope-bridge, the bridge shaking violently because of my shaky legs! The children had a great laugh at my expense, of course!
I came back from this trip a lot wiser about children, and what they are capable of. And what I also realized that it is we adults, who under-estimate their strength and capacity, be it physical, mental or emotional. There were many scraped knees and arms, but not a word of complaint. There were hungry stomachs and tired limbs, but hardly a sign of discontent. There were disagreements and in-fighting but even more camaraderie and new friendships. The older children automatically kept an eye on the younger ones, while the younger ones managed remarkably to be responsible. My own son, who is just over five, managed to get dressed, sleep in a bag, keep things in his rucksack, not lose anything, all on his own! I was so proud of him and the two other seven-year olds.
The activity where the children were sent off in different teams with only a knowledge of how to read the compass and a few clues, went off remarkably well. The children showed great team-work and determination to win, and took their tasks seriously. It was something to watch! The excitement was palpable and sleep was miles away, even late into the night. And only a few hours of sleep later, (with the dogs and I keeping watch!), they were up with the birds at 5.00 (completely ignoring my groans of dismay!) They ran off into the mountains at that early hour to play hide-and-seek (with me dragging myself along, while the other adults slept!) These children are the same ones who have to be dragged out of their beds at late hours in the morning! This is what they told me themselves, proudly of course!
I am sure that children need to 'leave the shore sometimes to discover new horizons'. If they are taught to be responsible and confident from an early age, they grow up to be strong, dependable and responsible adults. I know of children, who even at the age of 13-14, are pampered to an extent that they find it extremely tough to adjust to new surroundings, having been 'spoon-fed' most of even their adolescent lives. Their parents show fear all the time for their safety and this feeling gets transmitted to them as well, and then they are not able to take on new situations or tough challenges because of their nagging fears. They just watch the world go by, 'sitting at the shore', not taking the plunge. If we want our children to fly high, we have to give them wings. When my son was up on the ropes, my heart was in my mouth, but I had to egg him on to do his best, telling him he could do it, not revealing a tiny bit of my own fear. And he did! As parents, we are allowed to have our fears for our children, it would be most unnatural if we didn't. But these should not hold them back in life, making them fearful and under-confident, feeling they are not good or brave enough.
Our children need to feel our trust and confidence in their capabilities. And we can only show them by letting them 'go' now and then. It could be an 'adventure' in the mountains or in real life. By being overly protective, we rob them of the opportunities of learning during adverse situations. In the background, we are always there to catch them when they fall, but they need to know that we have full faith that they will always succeed at whatever they do. Our faith will make them achieve things that even we have never dreamed of!