My alarm clock rang awfully early this morning. It was quite a challenge forcing myself to wake up after last night’s game of “Uno” between my roommates and me that escalated into an all-out, two-hour tournament. I slid into the shower, stumbled into some clothes, and staggered down the hallway towards the cafeteria. Before I went 20 feet, I came upon Shad Carleton’s fearless leader, Adrian Chan, curled up on the floor sleeping under a blanket. I looked like I wasn’t the only one who could use a bit more sleep.

(Above picture) Carleton Program Director Adrian Chan sleeping on the floor.

Over the past two weeks at Shad, I’ve had to come to terms with one simple fact; Shad Valley is busy. Insanely busy. The constant onslaught of exciting, challenging, stimulating activities is enough to make even the hardiest of us a tad weary.

Today was different, though. It was the first time in the entire two weeks that we were given a substantial amount of free time. The three hours we were allowed may not seem like much, but to us Shads, it seemed like an eternity. There were so many possibilities such as shopping, watching a movie, or sleeping. But guess what we chose to do? We worked, of course! My entire house got together and worked on our design project for hours on the one day that we could have done whatever we liked!

Yet there wasn’t a single frown or complaint for the entire time, and every person put their whole heart into the prototype, design, or business model that they were working on.
At Carleton, we call it “Shadditude” and it’s the passion for learning, respecting others, and driving to succeed. It is inside every Shad. And we will need every ounce of passion and drive we have in order to meet the upcoming deadlines and successfully complete our lengthy design project.

After a number of fascinating lectures and a workshop on creating simple computer games, it was time for my team, the green house, to present the product design we’d been working on for days.

As the deadline for our presentation slowly drew closer, any minor quarrels we may have had with each other melted away. We became a well-oiled machine, each piece fitting perfectly and our ideas combining to form one vision.

Many of us were quite nervous about presenting to the panel of judges. We heard that they were brutally honest and any weaknesses in our product would be exposed. To our great delight, the judges responded to our project well and gave us some excellent suggestions.

Walking back to the dorms, a collective sigh of relief came from the green house for the fabulous feeling of a job well done. And that is what this whole thing is about. Shad Valley is made up of a lifetime’s worth of life-changing activities and experiences, lovingly crammed into one furious, passionate, soul-altering month.

Yes, Shad Valley is delightfully busy, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ben Barrett-Forrest
Shad Valley Carleton
Hometown: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory