By Jimmy P. (South Coastal Chapter, Marshfield, MA)

This week has been a lot of fun for me. I started off a little nervous about what was going to happen here at LTC, but after meeting my cabin members and getting accustomed to LTC I felt a lot more comfortable. At the same time, I also spoke more for completely related reasons.

The staff of advisors did a great job running this year’s LTC, and everybody who attended LTC was great and fun to be around. 

I also learned things during LTC, because it is a leadership training conference! I learned about how to plan and run a prospect party; during the membership course, I learned more about DeMolay history, and a lot of other things about DeMolay! I also learned some tips for public speaking, like don’t put your face too far from or too close to the microphone, don’t mumble, look at the audience, and especially, always set up the place where you’re going to be presenting the speech before the speech.

I had a lot of fun during the athletic events, even though I’m about as much of an athlete as somebody who doesn't do sports very often. Some of the highlights of the sports that I played are that during water polo, my whole team thought someone else was me, so he scored a point. It was hilarious!

During the ropes course, we had to do a bunch of challenges involving ropes. One involved balancing a board. During the ropes course we were only able to finish one of the courses, which was one where each person had to go through a spiderweb with holes in it, and then that hole couldn’t be used again. We were able to complete it by using teamwork, and trusting other people to literally carry us through the holes, which taught us the importance of teamwork.

I was able to make a lot of new friends here at LTC, and re-met some people who I already knew; hopefully I can remember their names! I like all of the people I met, and I hope I can see them again sometime.

When I first came here, I wasn’t sure how things would turn out, but I was surprised that it turned out even better than I expected. I was badly homesick at times, but I was able to push through it, and now the thought of arriving seems like a distant memory. If anybody’s interested in coming to LTC, even if you’re not sure, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend it.