Mirza Baig

Oulder Hill DofE Group C Presentation:

Part 2 of 2, Speech
Member: Mirza Baig
For our expedition, our main objective was to collect photographic evidence of flora and
fauna, and I believe that this is something that we have achieved. We had chosen this
objective as it would allow us to gain practical knowledge of the behavior of animals,
and locations of plant life. This will help us if we ever do decide to venture out into the
great outdoors, as we will have prior knowledge of the way nature works.
Besides that, I have attained a number of personal skills, the biggest of which is learning
to have confidence in me. There were several times when I was the person directing the
group, or I was helping to correct our course when the group was confused. At those
times, the fate of the whole group, the length we could have dinner, the time allowed
for breaks, all these depended on my ability to correctly guide the group. Had it been
up to me in any other situation, I would have been too unsure of myself to offer any
advice. However, in that situation, I was forced to make a decision, and I was forced to
believe in myself. That has caused me to trust my own self more, as there will come
certain situations in life that I must take charge, and I must believe that I can succeed.
For if you have no trust in yourself, what hope is there left?
One other skill that I have learnt, or rather improved, is the ability to divide the workload
effectively. Often, what happens is that if there is a certain job to be done, everyone gets
the same amount of work size wise, e.g. person A reads the map for 1 hour, so does
person B, etc., when in reality some people are better suited for certain jobs than others.
This will also tie into another attribute that I have improved, which is teamwork, as in
order to better function as a group, we all must do what we are good at. If person A is
proficient at setting up tents, while bad at cooking, and the opposite goes for person B,
it would make sense for A to set up tents while B cooks, even though B has less
(objectively) work to do, would it not?
I believe that these skills will help me later on in life, especially when I go into higher
education or get a job, as these are all highly valued traits, and should I have them, I can
simply do better than people who do not have them. This will help me work better as a
person, and contribute towards society as a whole. All in all, I am grateful for this
opportunity to partake in the Bronze DofE, and I look forward to participating again, so I
Mirza Baig
can further improve my skills. As a note, I would like to thank the members of my group
for their support, and all our teachers and mentors for guiding and helping us. Without
them, we would not have been able to do this.
Thank You