Just Write Training Weekend Recap Part 1!

I have had the most AMAZING weekend of my entire life! This weekend was the weekend of the long-awaited Just Write training weekend as a part of my involvement in the Just Write project.
For those of you who don’t know what the Just Write project is, it’s a part of the Just Focus network (hosted by Global Focus) which aims to strengthen youth voices on important global issues in the New Zealand media.

10 students were selected to take part after an application process. I was one of the lucky ones chosen!

On Friday night I flew down to Wellington after school, and let me just say that before then I had NEVER EVER flown in a plane before. I was so nervous! I had no idea what to expect and I was convinced I was going to lose my luggage or miss my connecting flight to Wellington.
I checked in at the Whakatane airport and waited anxiously.

Eventually it was time to board the plane and after much reassurance from the staff that I would be fine and all would run smoothly, I felt comfortable getting on the plane. It was tiny! It seated 20 people and it was very loud. I was amazed when we took off and looked out the window to see all the land beneath us and I was so stunned at the sight, it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and it felt surreal. I also got to watch a WICKED sunset.

The trip went super fast and we landed in Auckland and I rushed to catch my connecting flight to take me to Wellington. It was in a MUCH bigger plane this time- and Boeing 747 and it was complete with flight attendants and refreshments! haha. That trip also flew by (like my pun? lol) and before I knew it we were preparing for landing in Wellington. I didn’t have a clue where to go and a lovely man who I’d made friends with on the flight took me to baggage claim- bless him- otherwise I would’ve been wandering around like a headless chicken. It was at baggage claim that I first met two of the people involved, Jamie (a team member) and Mel, one of the coordinators.

We left the airport once I’d gotten my bags and we went to collect Hells Pizza for dinner before heading to the Capital House where we were staying. As soon as we met the rest of the team there was instant chemistry. We all got along from the moment we met and we connected in such an amazing way. There was no awkward small talk and we hit it off right away. We had a great dinner and then head to our rooms to settle in before coming back down to watch some short films with powerful messages and to eat some delicious fair trade chocolate

The view of the Wellington lights from my room was AMAZING!!! I tried to capture it on camera but it doesn’t even come CLOSE to doing it justice.

Watching the movies was great and they held some really really powerful messages. We all talked about a lot of really huge issues that related to the messages in them and didn’t end up getting to bed until 11.30!!! I slept solidly and was up early the next day to prepare for the action-packed day ahead.

Here’s a day-time view from my room:

We got straight into things at 9am in our conference room which looked like this:

We started with a session on Globalisation and how we’re involved, also the key word: Interconnectedness! I could go on for pages on each session, but for the sake of my time and yours I’ll keep the main points pretty simple.

After that we had a workshop on writing basics, things like how to actually WRITE a piece. Relevance, audience, tone, structure and tone. Following that we had a workshop on writing basics part 2 which included interviewing people and researching.

Then we had a session on learning about the Official Information Act and how we can utilise that to the best of our ability. Each workshop ran for 1.5-2 hours and in between we ate LOTS of food.

like this: (my lunch)

We were fed so well the whole day with scones, cake, what you can see above and more! It was a feast at every meal!

After lunch we decided to get some fresh air and give our minds a chance to recover from the cramming of information we’d had all day. We went for a walk to explore the Capital House grounds.

Then it was back to work to start planning our podcasts. We had to think of a theme and then branch off from there to think of our own individual podcasts. In amongst all that we managed to lose like, an hour or two and then it was afternoon tea, back to planning and then we had to get ready to go out for dinner and to see a show called “Dog Sees God” at Bats theatre.

We went to see Parliament and have some photos:

Then we headed to a food court to get some eats before the show.

 
We had quite a wait at Bats before the show started and gave us all a chance to kick back and have some bonding time. We had some good laughs

The show was AWESOME! The acting was amazing and we all really really enjoyed it. It ended up running a lot later than we expected, but it was well worth it. Once again we had a very late night but an excellent day full of useless information which I think will REALLY help me with my writing which means you can look out for improved articles from me. I’m working on a brand new one at the moment which I’m very excited about.

Stay tuned for part 2 which covers Sunday!

Goodnight, xoxo