I have to say, I was pretty nervous when I rocked up on Monday for our first training session. Even though I knew not everyone could make it, it was still daunting meeting just two of the other ‘young leaders’ for the first time; it didn’t seem real somehow. There were biscuits to focus on when I arrived and joined James (umm, jammy dodgers…), and I started yabbering away without thinking, which is my normal mode when I am not really sure what to do. But when Kylie joined us and we started talking, really talking about things, suddenly it all started to get very real and very exciting….
Ok, it was a bit surreal to be given as a first time bonding exercise the task of lauching an egg off an eight foot walkway without smashing it. We really ended up bonding with him, named him Eggbert and went to the trouble of making him a spectacular parachute. Maybe that showed we are all a bit nuts, which I am sure will proove usefull. But it also showed that we worked together really well, and straight away made everything else seem that bit more acheivable. That’s one of the main things about this project of course – we are not on our own anymore, trying to swim against the tide of the competitive arts world, we are in it together. Even though we each have our own things to focus on, our own ideas and our own projects, we are still in it together. I can’t wait to meet everyone properly next week, when we are out and about visiting heritage sites and promoting them from a young person’s point of veiw.
On Thursday, I met Rebecca for the first time : ) and we did a short interview for The Hub, BBC Oxford’s cultural radio programme : (. Oh dear. There is nothing more likely to make you feel like a complete pillock than having to talk into a microphone about yourself. Hmmm. Even so, it did make everything a bit clearer in my head about what I was wanting to do, and why; however uneloquently I did it, I think I put across the fact that I really beleive in trying to lauch a project that gives young people who might not be conventionally academic or might not have been given the chance to be creative, the confidence to express their ideas and be empowered to beleive that they are intelligent and they do have a right to be seen and be heard and be themselves.
