Symbolism of Sailing the Sea
Just some context-
The Shackleton Sea Expedition 2014 was an 11 day sea expedition around the Amabas Archipelago of the Riau Islands, Indonesia. 14 Year 5 students from the School of the Arts embarked on this expedition, on the schooner The Four Friends, with its captain, Captain Blake, the crew, John and Aida, KayakAsia instructor Mr Huey, and our two teachers Mrs Wong and Ms Kong.
Being primarily a leadership expedition, the name Shackleton becomes very fitting, referring to the British explorer of the South Pole, Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), who is most famous for leading this crew back to safety, after their failed expedition of the ship Endurance (1914-1916). One of the reasons why Shackleton was considered a great leader was because of his easy adaptability, responsibility and commitment.
Moving on-
Aside from our expeditions title, there are other aspects of our journey that I feel are symbolic to the theme of leadership, the major aspect being the very act of sailing. Helming, which we all got to practice on the schooner, symbolises taking charge, steering yourself and your team in the same direction, towards a goal. As I experienced firsthand, the Captain, was our main, obvious leader on the seas being behind the wheel most of the time and giving out instructions. This is perhaps the most obvious kind of leadership position that we are used to, where the leader is in the foreground, steering the group with a very physical presence.
But during the course of this expedition, I also learnt other forms of leadership, some of them possibly more powerful, meaningful and influential than the first major kind. The best thing about the different types of leadership I learnt, was that I learnt them all from my experiences with my own friends, not secondhand, from a leadership model template.
One of the major takeaways I've had from this expedition regarding leadership, is personal leadership. Again, helming is symbolic here in the sense that, when helming, you hold the agency and ability in your own hands, to make changes, stay on track or change course. During this journey, the most important thing that I've learnt, that kept coming up during the trip was that I am really the Captain of my Soul. I make my own decisions, and the only thing stopping me is myself. Cheesy as it might sound, and despite the numerous times that I've been told that, I have never really understood what it meant until this expedition.
The Shackleton Sea Expedition 2014 was an 11 day sea expedition around the Amabas Archipelago of the Riau Islands, Indonesia. 14 Year 5 students from the School of the Arts embarked on this expedition, on the schooner The Four Friends, with its captain, Captain Blake, the crew, John and Aida, KayakAsia instructor Mr Huey, and our two teachers Mrs Wong and Ms Kong.
Being primarily a leadership expedition, the name Shackleton becomes very fitting, referring to the British explorer of the South Pole, Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), who is most famous for leading this crew back to safety, after their failed expedition of the ship Endurance (1914-1916). One of the reasons why Shackleton was considered a great leader was because of his easy adaptability, responsibility and commitment.
"Real Leaders"
help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness
and selfishness and weakness and dear
and gets us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves
to do on our own"
(Novelist, David Foster Wallace)
Aside from our expeditions title, there are other aspects of our journey that I feel are symbolic to the theme of leadership, the major aspect being the very act of sailing. Helming, which we all got to practice on the schooner, symbolises taking charge, steering yourself and your team in the same direction, towards a goal. As I experienced firsthand, the Captain, was our main, obvious leader on the seas being behind the wheel most of the time and giving out instructions. This is perhaps the most obvious kind of leadership position that we are used to, where the leader is in the foreground, steering the group with a very physical presence.
But during the course of this expedition, I also learnt other forms of leadership, some of them possibly more powerful, meaningful and influential than the first major kind. The best thing about the different types of leadership I learnt, was that I learnt them all from my experiences with my own friends, not secondhand, from a leadership model template.
One of the major takeaways I've had from this expedition regarding leadership, is personal leadership. Again, helming is symbolic here in the sense that, when helming, you hold the agency and ability in your own hands, to make changes, stay on track or change course. During this journey, the most important thing that I've learnt, that kept coming up during the trip was that I am really the Captain of my Soul. I make my own decisions, and the only thing stopping me is myself. Cheesy as it might sound, and despite the numerous times that I've been told that, I have never really understood what it meant until this expedition.
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| From http://www.dennisselisseth.com/she-adjusted-her-sails/
Of course, aside from the leadership aspects of this journey, another aspect that I really connected with was the environmental, and the connection I made with my natural surroundings, from the celestial, to the geographical-of both land and sea. One of the amazing things about being out in the open sea, is its enormity and vastness. And when I was standing on a schooner in the middle of the open sea with nothing but the sea around us, I began to realise how big the world is - not in an intimidating way, but in an amazing way, with an enormity that we will never fully be able to understand.
And as with every journey, there is both the element of the external and internal in every discovery. Discovering new shores and seas and seeing the world from another perspective other than our little bubbles that we contain ourselves in, is very much a physical journey. But with every physical journey comes a journey of self discovery, and this expedition, like my GPS Sumatra trip (http://globalperspectivessumatra.blogspot.co.uk/), offered many moments of reflection and introspection.
As with any expedition, there is always the element of venturing into the unknown. You can prepare, and take precautions, and bring all the tools you need, but ultimately, you can never be prepared for everything in life - and who says the unpredictability is a bad thing?
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