CON, From the Sponsor Side

What should I say about the UU Youth Con experience from my adult perspective? First that it is totally amazing! Two hundred fifty plus youth and their adult sponsors get together in a space of love and respect to explore their personal religious beliefs for a weekend away from the world. The youth exhibit radical hospitality with deep bonds of friendship forming in the briefest of encounters. First timers are not outsiders and are integrated into the community by those how have come before, and those who have been there before shriek upon reuniting with old friends.

As an adult, I like that I feel like a member of this community and not some overload sent to make sure things don't get broken <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 (but of course I was sent to make sure things don't get broken; silly insurance companies and parents) All kidding aside, it is amazing to watch the Youth lead their own programming, coming up with a theme for their Con, planning and leading amazing worship experiences, and overcoming adversity in unexpected ways.

Let's talk about adversity for a moment shall we? My first Con experience was one where the community had to come together to reassess who they were and what they wanted to be. The Youth felt that rules had been imposed upon them without consultation and input by Youth. To be frank the Youth felt betrayed, and that the values their adult UU mentors were attempting to instill in them were utterly lacking by this conduct. Instead of sulking or rebelling, the Youth came together as one strong body to discuss how they felt about this, and how they wanted to respond. They spent most of the weekend hammering out productive solutions to valid concerns that the proposed rule changes reflected. That Con may not have been much "fun" but it bond those Youth together. They addressed adult policy makers directly about their objections to the rules and worked out solutions that were agreeable to Youth and adult. The next Con after this difficult process was one that was deeper spiritually than what, I gather, had been the custom of the past, and much more fun than the first Con I attended.

Speaking of fun, there are lots of activities that are pure fun. The talent-no-talent show is a highlight of the weekend, with Youth and Sponsors sharing amazing musical, theatrical, comedic, and stupid people trick talent. A highlight for me is the singing of the Canadian national anthem which is now sung in three languages - me? I'm still struggling to master singing my national anthem in its one language, but I digress. Back to the fun, Noting, and I repeat nothing, is quite the same type of fun as laptag. Ask a Youth to explain it to you. After sitting on the sidelines for many Cons being vaguely anxious (we adults are suppose to be the non-anxious adult presence at Con) about an activity that results in the most trips to the nurse , we adults decided to see what all the fuss was about and turned the tables on the Youth by playing our own game of laptag. It was the Youth's turn to be anxious as we gave ourselves rug burns in a game that makes even the most pacific UU an aggressive combatant - while remaining loving and respectful , odd, but true.

So there you go, my adult reflections on the UU Youth Con experience. It is something we as UUs can be very proud of. Our Youth are amazing, did I say that before?

Love and service,

David Anderson- University Unitarian Church, Seattle, WA