A personal experience.

Ok so this next post has a bit of background behind it, I'll try my best to sum it up.

My older sister Jenny was on a team of adults (parents in my community mostly) who took part of putting together this sort of leadership class called GAP (no, not the store!), and I wasn't sure about it at first, but now I am so glad I went. I summarized my experiences in an essay I wrote (which I got an A+ on) for my 12th grade English class.

I went to an amazing thing called GAP training over Spring Break last year. It was totally different than I was expecting. I learned surprising things about myself and others, and I met people I'll never forget.I took with me moral standards that I believe have made me a better person.
I arrived at Lakeview Camp in Waxahachie, TX (where GAP was) early on a Saturday morning. I was very tired as I sat in the "training room", but I did my best to learn and absorb as much as I could as the day went on.
That night, we (the group of teenagers and I that were there) went through an exercise where we got to give and receive honest feedback based solely upon first impressions. Jenny was on the GAP team so that means she (and the rest of the GAP team) got to give me and everyone else feedback also. The things I heard from people, even from those I didn't know, were literally like a punch in the stomach to hear because I realized how truw they were -- that I AM hurt, desperate, and withholding, yet I'm sweet, kind, and outgoing. After that exercise was over, I was so full of emotion that I cried myself to sleep.
However, the most emotional exercise I went through was on Sunday night, and it was called Lifeboat. Our team leader, Amy, gave us a situation that described us (well, each individual teenager) going on a cruise, then something goes wrong with the cruise ship and it starts to sink. There's only one lifeboat, and it only has four seats on it. After Amy described this to us, she asked each of us individually to get up in front of everyone in the room and in 30 seconds tell our name, whether or not we would be on the lifeboat, and why or why not we chose that way. I chose not to be on the lifeboat. After that, each person was given four sticks, and based on hearing what everyone said, we each gave a stick to the 4 people we thought deserved to survive. I wasn't chosen. After that, the four people who would survive sat in chairs in front of everyone, and one by one everyone else got 15 seconds to give our final messages in the hopes the four survivors would give them to our family and friends. By this point, I was bawling like a baby. Amy then told us non-survivors to close our eyes as we were laying on the floor and picture our loved ones' faces when they found out we hadn't survived. I started crying so hard I couldn't breathe. After that, the exercise was over, and we each received letters our parents had written to us as if they would never see us again. After I read my letters, I was so overcome with emotion I was speechless and yet again cried myself to sleep. I couldn't believe the things that were written to me! They were so meaningful -- both sad and happy, too.
In conclusion, I will never forget the experiences I had at GAP. Those experiences taught me to be more grateful for the people in my life. I am grateful to God for providing me with such an amazing opportunity.

Read more about GAP here.