talonshayley

Every so often people get to try the weirdest, wackiest things imaginable. However, most of the time we are all caught up in our day to day schedules; hanging out with friends, sports, and of course, homework. But I am fortunate enough to be apart of an awesome school program called TALONS. TALONS allows you to experience new things, even if they are the completely strange. In-Depth is a key part of the TALONS program. For five months we have to choose a topic and study it.  But there’s a catch, you can choose ANYTHING. I found this extremely difficult. Over Christmas break I thought to myself, what do I want to study for five whole months. I had about four ideas, wildlife photography, first aid, knot-tying and coaching. All of which were passions of mine but I finally managed to go with the weirdest one, tying knots. When I first told people about this I always got a standard opinion, “Really Hayley? Your going to sit around and tie a piece of rope for five months?” My reponse, “Bring it.”

I have some basic knowledge of tying knots. I mean I’m not a genius but I happen to have an overly energetic Dad who would give me survival kits for my birthday while saying “See that mountain over there? We’re going to climb that this summer”. I don’t think he realized I was only 9. Anyways, my point is that I know about 10% of all the knots out there. By the end of this hard-core journey I should be at 99.999%, or 100%.

You might wonder if I’m nuts. Why is she going to tie knots for a school project? They’re just knots. Well I was giving this some thought and came to the conclusion that knots are pretty handy. I love to sail. Every summer I go every day through the race course by my cabin. Well knots are used for keeping the sails up, holding the rudder, doing jibes and tacks and even tying the boat to the dock. Also, whateer happened to rock climbing? I’m not talking about going to an indoor facility, having a trainer hook you up to the fake rocks and climbing on the little steps. I mean the type where you have to climb up a huge chunk of rock in order to climb to the peak. One day I would love to do that. It’s on my “top ten things to do before I die” list. I can’t exactly go if I don’t know ho to hold myself up there. Lastly, you need to know basic knots to go camping. On one of the camping trips I went on, the guys tent collapsed in the middle of the night (it was pouring rain). They woke up soaked. I really don’t want that happening to me. Oh and one more thing, I like tying knots. Thats probably one of the biggest reasons. It’s a weird thing to appreciate but then again TALONS is all about finding those wacky things you like (or in my mind).

My plan for the next couple months is simple.

Step One: Learn the basic knots (this should take me to the end of January)

Step Two: Learn knots in each of the different categories [Sailing, Fishing and Survival (Rock climbing and camping)]

Step Three: Know each knot BY HEART. Yes, when I mean by heart, I expect myself to be able to do the knots blindfolded.

Step Four: Get a blindfold.

Step Five: Create something out of knots (still working on this part)

My plan is a little more detailed than that but that is just the bare bones of my project.

For the In-Depth study, we are expected to find a mentor. For me this is kind of challenging. There isn’t a proffession where someone ties knot all day. However, I talked to my friend Emily (who is in Scouts) and was able to get the email of one of her leaders she thinks would make a great mentor. So far I have sent him an email. Unfortunetly he is on holidays right now but should be back soon.

In a nutshell my project is slowly but surely getting started and I’m extremely excited to see how it turns out.