General Overview:
During this NYAA experience, outdoor appreciation is normally covered by the school expeditions we go on, however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, these trips got cancelled. This meant that we had to plan our own trips to cover this section of the NYAA, and I decided to choose cycling as my activity. This lead me to create my aim, which was ‘to get fitter and learn new skills whilst increasing my speed in cycling, spending more time outdoors. I chose cycling as I believed it was most beneficial to me as it would help increase my fitness, but it would also force me to spend time outdoors for longer periods, and do things I wouldn’t regularly do.
Challenges + How Have I Grown:
Some challenges I faced was initially trying to decide on and figure out what activity I wanted to do for my outdoor appreciation. I initially was planning to do a few other activities, but I kept discovering problems with them and having to change the activity. This meant that I started my activity quite a bit later, but it ended up not causing too much difficulty as there was no time limit for this section. I believe that I have grown by doing this activity as I have learned to appreciate nature more, and I have also allowed myself to learn tricks to cycle faster that can benefit me in other sports I may do.
Main Takeaways:
Though cycling is quite a normal activity, and I already knew how to do it, I decided to learn new skills such as cycling with one hand and no hands. At first, this proved to be quite a challenge, however after doing it multiple times, I got much better at it, and can now cycle with one hand quite easily. The constant cycling also allowed me to increase my stamina as though it’s not a sport where you run, you still require constant effort to keep pushing forward, and as I did it more and more, my speed was able to increase and I could half the time it took. Lastly, I realised that when going alone, I was able to cycle much faster as I was fully focused on the cycling and not the people I was with.
Connection To Nature/Outdoors:
I believe that the biggest lifestyle change and benefit I gained from this NYAA experience was this outdoor appreciation section. Though I got to reflect on my past experiences with healthy living and service, this portion of the award allowed me to do things I normally wouldn’t do. It helped me decrease the amount of time I spent on my phone as I went outdoors more than I normally would. helping me to develop an appreciation and deeper understanding of nature. Also, since I was taking the same path every time, I was able to notice more and more details about the place as I kept going. As it became natural to cycle there, I didn’t have to focus much on the route, and I could notice things I normally wouldn’t.