There it is, the last swimming carnival of my school life is now done and dusted. Sure, I didn’t participate in any of the races, but by ‘doing my part’ and taking photos for the school magazine, I managed to go ‘participate’ in an event that I would not normally participated in. Sure, I’ll freely admit that I missed out on last year’s swimming carnival cos I was working – but I managed to make it to this years, unlike some people I know… YOU BLUDGERS!
Now, even though I was taking photos at the swimming carnival – some would call me nasty things – I was just making my contribution to the school society, I promise.
Anyway, I noticed that even though a lot of non-seniors (that’s the year 7-10’s, folks), were actually in attendance, they weren’t doing a whole lot in the way of actually getting into the spirit of things, like, they weren’t getting involved. Some were doing homework. Others read. Others still hung out with their friends – sure, they were having a good time, but not exactly participating in the swimming carnival as such.
So, what to do? Well, we were at a Student Council meeting, and we were discussing the finer points of the swimming carnival (as you do at these sorts of meetings). Someone came up with the idea of completely revamping the swimming carnival to be more… participant friendly. Something that not only the athletic types would enjoy, but also the less athletic among us.
What about… a beach carnival. Yeah, I know, at first it sounds a little corny/in-formal/inappropriate, but maybe if there was a swimming carnival with beach cricket, beach volleyball, and for the non-participants among us, sunbaking, mucking around in the surf, and all that kind of stuff. My question to you is, would any of you be interested? Interested more so than the present swimming carnival?
Thoughts? Post ‘em in comments…
April 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Ok – so this might not be anything to do with me – but how is “sunbaking, mucking around in the surf, etc” better than “doing homework, reading, hanging out”? You’re still not participating – you’re just doing it differently.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
True.
But by being with their friends, out in an environment where it isn’t all stuffy and whatnot, they’ll be more inclined to participate in some of the less physically challenging activities; sunbaking, mucking around in the surf, etc.
Another issue is also the one of attendance – statistically, you’re going to get more people at the beach than you were if they were inside a stuffy, humid environment where participation was optional – but attendance was not.