No time to say good-bye

This week, I went to a LiberKnight in Cardston. It was so amazing and inspiring and thought provoking! The book that we read was "No time to say Good-bye, by Sylvia Olson. It was about residential schools. What a scar on Canada's history! Native people are still recovering from that horror. The Simulation happened first thing. Here it is...

We were in the middle of playing a game in which we were tangled in a hopeless knot, when a man in a green shirt came and tried to get our attention. We ignored him and kept playing our game. The guy didn't seem to get the hint, and finally we listened to what he had to say. He told us that Home schooling had just been banned by the Government of Canada. He told us that our parents had rebelled in this action and that we were to be sent to a School in Hudson Bay. We wouldn't be able to see our parents until we graduated from high school, and only if we we had an 85% average. He told us to get into some vans and drive to the Cardston High school, where he would tell us what was to happen to us. When we were in the van, one of our counselors told the kids who hadn't ever been in a simulation what a simulation was (basically, we would experience something that could happen or has happened. She told us we were supposed to act as if it was a real thing and to really think of what we would do in that situation) We were almost there and she gave us a minute to get into character. As I thought, I realized that I had never said good-bye to any of my siblings that morning because we had left so early. The book title is the only thing that I could think of. No time to say good-bye. I realized that if this was a real situation, I wouldn't be able to see my family for a very long time. As I realized this, I cried. We arrived at the High School and I still couldn't stop. Tessa comforted me which made me realize (not for the first time) what a great friend she was! We walked into a room where there was tables on one side and tables on the other. The Government official told the boys to sit on the left and the girls to sit on the right. A lady put our hair into pig-tails and sat us down.

The man told us what to expect. No holidays, one letter a month (revised and edited by a teacher), he also told us that if we caused any trouble our parents would be put in jail and our siblings would be put in foster care. I didn't dare do anything! I felt so helpless. We were going to be put in buses to Calgary then we would board onto an airplane to Hudson Bay. One boy started lipping off the Guy and ended up getting another boy to do 20 push-ups. I was so mad! One of my cousins, (Denny Burton) made a break for it and got away. I was so proud of him! We all cheered him on. The Government official was hopping mad by then and told us that all of our parents were to be put in jail and Denny's brother (Christian Burton) and his neighbor (my other cousin C.J. Murray) were banned from writing letters for a whole year. Sometime during these events, I decided that I would not give the guy the satisfaction of seeing me cry, so I bit my lip and stopped. When Tessa started to cry and I had to keep thinking "Don't cry Stephanie, Don't cry." One of the counselors, Jacob, told him to stop being so mean to us. Then Jacob and the official started to fight (not physically) and one of the things that Jacob said was, "what is 16 x16?" the man said "I am the only one who is allowed to ask questions!" Then he motioned to the body guard to take him out. The body guard literally carried Jacob out.

They never came back. After a while the man walked out to see what had happened. The lady that had done our hair walked up to the front and said; "Simulation ends now." I was so surprised. It had seemed so short! Then the Man and the body guard walked back in and told us that they had sent Jacob to go and look for Denny, The funny thing was that Denny had left his shoe in the hall! He was so worried that they would catch him that he hadn't bothered to get his shoe. Jacob came back and told us that he couldn't find him. Then Wendy Creed went out and found him about a block away. He came back and put on his shoe and told us what he did. Which was basically run and hide.

We had an awesome debrief. One of my counselors said; "why is it easier to be a leader when there is a crisis? And why does it take a crisis to be a leader? Being a leader in a crisis is good, but it is harder to be a leader when there is no apparent crisis." That really stuck out to me. I resolved then and there to be a leader but not have to wait for a crisis to do it.

Anyway's there is the simulation. I just want to say to any of the people that helped organize this, Thank-you for the awsome simulation, good food, and a totally inspiring week-end!