The Importance of Adaptability

During our most recent expedition, adaptability was the name of the game. You really must be able to adapt to overcome. Throughout my SOAR experiences, right below safety and school, their main objective was to teach us life lessons that will help us throughout life. Adaptability was definitely a major one, because when you make a plan, you need to be ready for it to change, on a dime.
When you are in the backcountry (anywhere that’s away from civilization), it is hard to know exactly what could happen. From forgetting food to changing weather conditions, many things can happen (both affected us on this last expedition).
During this last expedition we paddled over one hundred miles in around ten or so days. Within ten days a lot can happen. For example, for the first half or so of the paddle, the skies were sunny and clear, then the sky started to cloud up and we paddled through many-a-storm. We needed to adapt when, during one of our lunch breaks, it started pouring down rain. We ended up setting up our tents and huddling down for three-hours to stay warm. To keep ourselves entertained, most of us ended up playing cards to pass the time while some slept. I think that was a perfect example of adaptability. We also had several more examples of the need to adapt. During mid-expedition, we found out that we didn’t buy enough food to last us until the last day, so we ended stopping a day early about thirty or so miles away from Edisto Beach State Park (our original ending destination).
In my opinion these were all really good examples of adaptability. During that expedition, it was especially hard for Yoda (our leadership role) to keep the rest of the group motivated and going, because this was our student lead expedition. This means that the staff, basically, stepped back from their everyday leadership, and had us lead ourselves. So the staffs were only there for safety, to make decisions Yoda couldn’t, and to inform the “Yoda” about the day/plans. But, the storms became a safety issue, so during the storm days a lot of Yoda’s decisions making abilities were taken over by staff. This made it harder for Yoda and the group to know exactly what the plan was. We had to basically blindly adapt to what the staff, did until they informed us why.
So in my opinion, adaptability is one of the most important life skills that an outdoor leadership school can teach is adaptability. Because later on in life when you become an employee, you must be able to adapt to whatever your boss is telling you, and get it done so that you can keep your job. Personally, I am really glad that I have had the opportunity to learn this trait early in life.

-Stephen A. Foster