Oh dear, first day of evals and I am first! All-in all it really wasn’t that bad. I waited 45 minutes to talk to Jeff and Rose during that time I reflected deeply about my abilities and myself as a leader. What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? Man what a list. When Jeff called me over I was ready to face the Tindall Bear. We discussed what I really expected to hear. With the last advice that they told me was the best news to my ears, “Go do some laundry and take a shower.” With one of the coldest showers that my body has ever know I felt like a new person. As I waited for the group to discuss my abilities as a leader I noticed a I had a lot of free time. I did laundry, took a shower, ate lunch, did some of my journals, thought about my interpretation topic, and even took an hour and a half nap.
When the group told me that they were ready I prepared myself for the worst, but surprisingly they told me what Jeff, Rose, and I already talked about. It was funny how well the two correlated with each other; guess it really is that noticeable. After I was done being evaluated it was Ooter’s turn. I know knew why it took so long to do my evaluation. We sat down in a circle and discussed every question on the page and gave examples until the group came to a consensus on what number the person should get. We didn’t spend as nearly as long on Ooter as they did with me ( I was seven hours while Ooter was only five).
When it was time to sit Ooter in front of the group and discuss our evaluation of him we all noticed that he was clean too, he must have gotten the same wonderful advice that I received from Jeff and Rose. After Ooter’s evaluation Derek, who was Leader of the Day, decided not to do another one since it was already 7 pm. He feared that we would be even later than Ooter’s and mine because we would be cooking and not many people would be fully involved in the evaluation. I think Derek made the right decision! It was soon time for a pizza dinner and off to bed, we needed to get plenty of sleep for tomorrow because we still have six more people to evaluate.

-Stephen Gilbert