Cadet camp was an amazing experience however instead of being 8 days this year it was 7, this was due to the weather; the day before our departure the area flooded quite a bit, therefore, it was postponed. So instead of leaving on Friday morning, we left on Saturday morning. I was there at 5:45 in the morning as I was a bus officer, this was a huge responsibility which included forming up the whole bus group in a single file in alphabetical order, ensuring they stayed that way which at times they didn't because they wanted to go talk to friends etc., ensuring everybody was accounted for, it was quite frustrating at times as I did have to repeat orders quite a bit. However, I managed to get it done, and by the time we had to leave everyone was …show more content…
There were also times when I had to talk to my recruits about crossing the line when it came to jokes and 'banter' and I had to pull certain people aside to talk to them about this issue, even though I didn't want to be mean I had to be fair and they had to understand what they were doing wasn't acceptable behaviour, and that there is a time and place for everything, whilst I could've ignored this issue amongst my recruits and told them to get over it I wanted my platoon to be a team and to be close, and as they are my responsibility I wanted to ensure that every single person was ok and had a good camp experience. Another aspect of being a SGT was having to comply with orders you didn't always agree with, there were some cases when higher rank would make decisions that didn't always make sense, however, we had to follow them as they were our rank, whilst this was frustrating if it was absolutely preposterous we were able to suggest an alternative or learn from the mistakes we made. Overall I really think everyone in my platoon including myself grew within those 7 days and with perseverance and teamwork we all made it through and came out stronger by the end, I'm so proud of them all and loved and found it an absolute privilege to watch them grow, whether they were a CPL coming to terms with their leadership position or the recruits just getting through the physical and mental challenges, I'm glad I got to be a part of it and have somewhat of a positive