Tuesday 2 August 2016

Discussing My NCS Experience

After nearly a month's break from my blog-writing duties, I have returned - how I have missed typing Blogger into the search engine and arriving at my prime destination of writing glory, which is always as uplifting as indulging in one of those cheesy feel-good films that even the so-called 'hardest' person secretly likes. Well, plenty can happen over the course of a month - particularly during my extremely long post-exam summer (bet you were guessing how long it would take me to utter the E word, huh?) - and therefore I'm bursting like an overfilled cupcake case to reveal all that has happened. 

On the last occasion that I wrote here, I was just a week away from beginning my NCS adventure which, until that point, I hadn't really thought an awful lot about. Why? Bearing in mind that I'd booked my place on the programme as far back as January - I suppose that my New Year's Resolution of banishing my lazy, can't-be-bothered attitude was seriously playing with my thoughts at the time - I'd somewhat had the ideal excuse to forget all about it up until a week or two before I started it, especially as I wasn't in a position like some people to sign up at literally the last minute. 

In fact, in the months, weeks and days (luckily, hours and seconds were not included!) leading up to my starting NCS, I'd received numerous phone calls, texts and emails with regard to inviting friends to sign up - aided with the offer of £25 to spend at Nandos which, for non-British residents, is the chicken-flavoured equivalent to Pokemon Go (for those unfamiliar with the adorable Pikachu, British teenagers are obsessed with Nandos, otherwise known as Chicken Heaven!). If I'd known any friends who would have been remotely interested in signing up for NCS, I definitely would have invited them because, what with having last gone to a Nandos for my 16th birthday last year (for the first and so far the only time - unfortunately, my family don't really like chicken that much, so perhaps my next trip there will be toute seule), I have some desperate cravings for spicy chicken dishes and vanilla-flavoured gelato! Still, I suppose that life goes on - regardless of whether your dreams are tainted with images of chicken thighs soaked in mouth-burning and eye-watering spices...

Anyway, skip forward to around a week and a half later - at which point my NCS adventure was firmly over. And, in case you begin to wonder whether your Specsavers glasses have just tricked your eyes into seeing a word that you cannot believe is appearing on your desktop screen, you can firmly relax - I did quit NCS! OK, I genuinely had an understandable reason for leaving NCS halfway through my first week because of a family bereavement, which instantly established to me that I had to return home, albeit my home was over 120 miles away from the resort I was staying at. 

Typically, the first week of NCS involves staying away from home at an activity/adventure camp/resort (a group of considerate angels had blessed me by ensuring that I was not camping for the week - the heavens would have felt the wrath of a million moaning and irritated teenagers from just myself if it had been so!); therefore, I was staying at an activity site which, had it not been for too many people signing up in my county, would have been situated at the one just up the road from my village. Well, the angels could surely have not blessed me with the luck of a saint by setting my first NCS week significantly closer to home - in fact, I probably could have carried having my meals, showers and even bedtimes in the comfort of my home if my local activity site had been assigned to my group! 

Nevertheless, I only had two full days of NCS life before I withdrew from the programme for the above-mentioned personal reasons, yet those two days have already washed all previous fears and concerns with regard to starting at a new sixth form next month (no longer so far away from the beastly A-Levels now, am I?). To my delight, I befriended a pair of twins who only came to England two years ago yet, like one of my friends at my current/former school (kinda feel like I'm in limbo until Results Day!) who originates from Portugal, they speak English so well - in fact, I initially wondered whether they were born and raised here because they speak ever so eloquently and comfortably! As a result, I'm no longer feeling concerned and worried about making friends because most people in my NCS group will be attending the same sixth form as myself, so hopefully I'll recognise a few faces in my classes, which will help to put me at ease. 

In many ways, I'm glad that I took part in NCS - albeit only for two days - because I proved to myself that I can make friends with people whom I've never met before which, despite sounding a little tad stupid and ridiculous in print (because how else have I or anybody else struck up friendships in the past?), had been a concern of mine whilst attending my previous school as I didn't really trust the people there, who could have painted a visage of initial pleasantness before revealing a mask of cruelty. For the past two years, I've struggled to trust my 'peers' at the two schools I've attended because, in particular, many of the girls were less sophisticated replicas of Regina George - as if I wanted to be on the firing line of a hard-faced bitch! Yet, almost immediately, I sensed that these girls embodied the warmth, kindness and humour that I've always wanted in a group of friends - but why should these qualities be such rarities in other educational institutions? Nonetheless, I will be eternally grateful for attending the same sixth form as these kind-hearted and intelligent people because at least they do not resort to the bitchiness that strongly defined the culture within my former school. 

However, the NCS programme was ridiculously restrictive - to the extent that I often wondered whether I had returned to playgroup because literally every minute was controlled by the managers who ran the activity resort! Rarely did I have a spare moment to return to my cabin (which I shared with five other girls - believe me, organising showering schedules was a delightful inconvenience!) and chill out with my friends; the only time that I had to do so was at bedtime, at which point I was so exhausted that all I craved was to fall into an eternal sleep (impossible thanks to having only one flat pillow in my bunk bed!). In all honesty, I don't see why staying at various sites over the course of the NCS programme is necessary because teenagers like myself who are on the verge of entering adulthood - in my case, within six months' time! - want to hang out without being dictated as to what they can and cannot do. Therefore, it is fair to say that I'm relishing the idea of meeting up with my new friends over the next few weeks because at least none of us have to be forced to climb ropes or participate in activities that do not interest us. 

Besides, most of the costs attributed to funding each person on the NCS programme can be blamed on paying for stays at these activity resorts, which certainly don't come cheap! As a new government settles into their new roles, I'm wondering whether the NCS programme - masterminded by the former PM David Cameron - will survive the changes that are bound to come about over the next few months and years. If NCS is investing so much in its advertising campaign yet still fails to gain enough participants (even one of my friends dropped out of it, along with a few others in my group before the week began), a significant amount of money must be lost somewhere along the lines, which could be better invested in helping schools employ qualified teachers, afford a vast range of GCSE/A Level courses and maintain an adequate standard of education for the millions of students across the country. 

Still, I suppose that everyone has different views regarding NCS and may see it in a completely different light to myself, but at least I gained something completely precious from it - new friendships. And, as everyone will know, friends are utterly priceless!

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