Before my team was officially mine, six out of the seven of us sat together on giant beanbag chairs after an activity. With a trainer and one of our squad leaders, we discussed the values we would want for our team.
Someone (I don’t remember who) brought up the idea of the “family table,” where we could all come together as equals. Immediately my mind went to the Round Table of Arthurian legend, designed for the same purpose. Even the king sat at this table with his knights as an equal.
My particular interest with knights started with a tradition within the business department at my college (read about that here) and as soon as the concept of the table was mentioned and I looked around at the people in the room, my brain was firing on all cylinders.
In the stories and legends, Knights always seem to be known by their most admirable characteristic. Lancelot the brave, Galahad the pure, the list goes on. And as I looked around at my fellow racers in the room, I began to get words for them. Some made sense immediately, others I had to think about a little bit before I could figure out why that particular one had popped into my mind for that person.
These words, which I shared with my team when we were officially announced, were as follows:
Jarred, the wise
Danny, the humble
Kyle, the faithful
Kelly, the peaceful
Gretchen, the powerful
Kaitlyn, the loyal
And while I didn’t think it was appropriate to name myself, it wasn’t long before my teammates did it for me. They called me “the courageous.”
(Top row: Jarred, Danny, Kyle. Bottom row: Kelly, Gretchen, Kaitlyn, Me.)
Jarred is a quiet and reserved guy, but when he speaks up, you immediately know he has something important to say, and want to hang on to every word. He’s a great writer too.
Danny is the epitome of the servant leader. His tool of choice is example rather than instruction, and anything he asks of someone, he’s willing to do himself.
Kyle is a man of action, and we know that faith without action is dead. One of the things that really resounded with me about Kyle is that when he says he’ll pray for someone, he does it right there on the spot without hesitation. You don’t always see that.
Kelly is the kind of person you immediately feel comfortable around -she’s a great listener and chooses her words carefully when she talks. She speaks with a calming tone which is a breath of fresh air to someone as high-strung as myself.
Gretchen carries great influence, whether she realizes it or not. And I’m not just talking about what she says – her joyful attitude and her laugh are contagious, which boosts the morale of the entire team.
Kaitlyn is authentic. She’s never pretending to be someone she’s not. When I first got the word “loyal” for her, it threw me for a loop a little bit. Not in a bad way – if anything, loyalty is perhaps one my highest regarded traits – but I was wondering why that one word stuck out to me. Then I figured it out: to be true to yourself is oftentimes just as important as being true to those around you.
And where do I fit into this crew? Honestly, I’m not too sure what role I’ll slide into just yet, but it will come, and I can’t wait. I love this team and I’m so glad to be traveling, working, and serving with them.
To read my teammates’s blogs, here are the links:
jarredmckinney.theworldrace.org
kellyfreiburger.theworldrace.org
gretchenmandel.theworldrace.org
kaitlynmcgregor.theworldrace.org
