jon4659
Nov 29, 2015
Undergraduate / The experience which I feel shaped my character the most was the Duke of Edinburgh Award. [11]
"Tell us a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it" 600 words
The experience which I feel shaped my character the most was the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
The DofE award was something I had often heard about from other people but had never looked into myself. When starting Sixth Form I was determined to apply myself in more ways than just academic, everyone goes that route. I wanted to do something which would really help me experience more things other than daily college activities. The DofE Gold award was the perfect answer to me, I would not just be exploring one activity, I would be discovering four different activities for the first time.
The three activities which I felt meant the most to me were Boxing, playing the lute and volunteering at my shop. I had little to none experience with them but I was determined to try something new.
Although thousands of people do the DofE award around the globe, It meant a huge amount to me, I have always been an inquisitive person, more interested in learning about the world around me than anything else but until now I had mostly done this through lessons, conversations with field experts or endless online research. Now I would be doing more than just learning about a thing, I would be doing that thing.
Boxing was utterly different to what I would normally do as a sport, I have always been a track athlete, I preferred challenging myself to do the best rather than challenging another. Boxing meant that I would have to throw away this rather solitary approach to exercise and instead engage in an activity where it was literally about beating the other person! When starting, I was slightly worried about what I would experience, would my lack of skill mean I would be relegated to the back seat for sessions? Or would I be unable to keep up with the other members?These fears turned out to be utterly pointless, the instructors made sure I was fighting with the best of them and although the sessions were incredibly exhausting I was able to keep up. At the end of the 6-month period, I found that not only had I achieved my goal I had also enjoyed it massively. Even though it was an activity which was the polar opposite to my character I was able to gain a huge amount of enjoyment out of the activity.
Learning the lute was the activity I was most excited for, not only would I be learning to play an instrument (something I had wanted to do for a while), I would be playing one which half of the people I told had never heard of. Playing the lute is an activity I am still doing and hopefully will continue throughout my life, although the music I play is completely different than the music I enjoy listening the playing of such a fun instrument is a reward in its own right.
The volunteering in my local shop was probably the best character-enhancing activity I did, having to get up early on a Saturday and work for free in my community meant that I understood that the main point of it was not to complete a section of my award but to actually help the people in my community. it really helped me to look beyond the award itself and see what it actually stands for.
The DofE award really helped to shape my character, I had always been nervous about trying new things even though I am fascinated by the world around me, it changed me as person as I realised that being confident was actually a fundamental part of me.
"Tell us a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it" 600 words
The experience which I feel shaped my character the most was the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
The DofE award was something I had often heard about from other people but had never looked into myself. When starting Sixth Form I was determined to apply myself in more ways than just academic, everyone goes that route. I wanted to do something which would really help me experience more things other than daily college activities. The DofE Gold award was the perfect answer to me, I would not just be exploring one activity, I would be discovering four different activities for the first time.
The three activities which I felt meant the most to me were Boxing, playing the lute and volunteering at my shop. I had little to none experience with them but I was determined to try something new.
Although thousands of people do the DofE award around the globe, It meant a huge amount to me, I have always been an inquisitive person, more interested in learning about the world around me than anything else but until now I had mostly done this through lessons, conversations with field experts or endless online research. Now I would be doing more than just learning about a thing, I would be doing that thing.
Boxing was utterly different to what I would normally do as a sport, I have always been a track athlete, I preferred challenging myself to do the best rather than challenging another. Boxing meant that I would have to throw away this rather solitary approach to exercise and instead engage in an activity where it was literally about beating the other person! When starting, I was slightly worried about what I would experience, would my lack of skill mean I would be relegated to the back seat for sessions? Or would I be unable to keep up with the other members?These fears turned out to be utterly pointless, the instructors made sure I was fighting with the best of them and although the sessions were incredibly exhausting I was able to keep up. At the end of the 6-month period, I found that not only had I achieved my goal I had also enjoyed it massively. Even though it was an activity which was the polar opposite to my character I was able to gain a huge amount of enjoyment out of the activity.
Learning the lute was the activity I was most excited for, not only would I be learning to play an instrument (something I had wanted to do for a while), I would be playing one which half of the people I told had never heard of. Playing the lute is an activity I am still doing and hopefully will continue throughout my life, although the music I play is completely different than the music I enjoy listening the playing of such a fun instrument is a reward in its own right.
The volunteering in my local shop was probably the best character-enhancing activity I did, having to get up early on a Saturday and work for free in my community meant that I understood that the main point of it was not to complete a section of my award but to actually help the people in my community. it really helped me to look beyond the award itself and see what it actually stands for.
The DofE award really helped to shape my character, I had always been nervous about trying new things even though I am fascinated by the world around me, it changed me as person as I realised that being confident was actually a fundamental part of me.