Skill, Will, and Confidence

- by Deirdre

Some of you probably aren't very familiar with me because I've never taken a Sword class. My first classes at Aegis were Leadership and Basic Woodsmanship. I just finished Primitive Woodsmanship and Rhetoric II, so at this point, I've had a fair amount of training in both the outdoors and public speaking.

Let me tell you about a funny thing happened about a month ago. I was doing some homework for my Woods class, and I went to the County Farm Park to get supplies: specific pieces of wood I needed to make a drop-spindle. I brought with me my knives (three,) my small emergency bag, my hatchet, plus the belt that holds them all up. I went into the woods and gathered all the gorgeous cherry wood I needed, and I also cracked open some rocks while I was there. I used almost every tool that I carried in, and there was no tool that I lacked while I was in there, because I had what I needed. People walked or jogged by me at intervals, but I didn't really care. I knew what I was doing, and I felt content and confident.

I felt content, and I felt confident. I knew I had the tools I needed. I knew I had the skills to obtain the supplies I wanted. Moreover, I knew that I had a right to be in the woods that day, doing what I was doing.

My confidence in that situation was the direct result of the training I got from Aegis. I learned about tools, I learned about techniques, and I learned about the will to use them together. Before these classes, I remember being more tentative about many outdoors activities, despite everything I had learned in my Forestry degree.

The way we're taught at Aegis is different from the way that we are taught in most college classes. At Aegis, we're encouraged to try, because will comes from trying. We're encouraged to fail, because knowledge comes from failure. We're encouraged to value our tools, because we will rely on them some day. Three parts of the pyramid: will, skill, and tools.
I hope that all of you will take the opportunity to take a non-sword class before you leave Aegis. I hope you will take these opportunities to develop more knowledge and more will, and that they will make you better and happier people, the way they did me. Knowledge and will bring confidence, and confidence brings a better life.

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