Connor Phipps is 23 years old and proud to be a member of the Rotary Club of Drury.
The following is a letter
from Connor Phipps to District
Governor Ron Seeto (9920) about his experience with RYLA as published on http://9920.rotarynews.org.nz
I am 23 years old and
I am a member of the Rotary club of Drury. I recently had the privilege of
attending the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) in Queensland, Australia. I
went to the RYLA course held in the Rotary District 9640, where the course was run
in a beautiful area called Tyalgum Ridge Retreat. Tyalgum is approximately one
and a half hours drive from the Gold Coast and upon arriving at the destination
it is officially in the state of New South Wales.
My Rotary Club of
Drury has a sister club being the Rotary Club of Surfers Paradise and a way in
which to bring our two clubs closer together we have agreed to send a person
from NZ to attend RYLA in Australia and then a person in Australia will be sent
to attend RYLA in our District each year. I was privileged to be selected by my
club to go and attend the RYLA course in Australia.
RYLA was an incredible
experience for me, I was not sure what to expect or what I would gain and learn
from the experience. There is a huge amount of secrecy leading into the course
so even before you get there the nerves are definitely running high! I look
back on all the experiences that I had during my week at RYLA and am constantly
amazed by how quickly we went from being strangers to becoming great friends. I
cannot think of many courses in which you go from being complete strangers to
knowing each other better than what some of your friends and family you have
known your whole life do in just one week.
During the course we
had varying activities, the days were always full on and nonstop. We had great
speakers come along, all with different stories and messages that really
inspire you. We also had plenty of outdoor activities which involved getting
very muddy at times which was great fun and filled with plenty of laughs.
Since RYLA I have been
asked many times what I gained from this course and I seem to find that words
cannot truly describe the experience that I went through. I like to think of it
as a transformation process in which RYLA is just the beginning. It gives you
the confidence, skills and friends to be able to go back to the outside world
and know what you may need to change and how to change it. For me personally it
put many things into perspective and showed me the tools needed to improve and
achieve my goals in life. One of the biggest things I walked away with was how
proud I am to be a Rotarian, to know that there are these courses but to also
see how majorly this course impacted on peoples’ lives reinforced why I joined
Rotary.
Connor Phipps Rotarian
ROTARY DRURY
