by Ah, the school trip. Long bus journeys, packed lunches and the opportunity to escape the bonds of the daily routine.
It has been a good 18 years since I recently completed an excursion of this kind, but this weekend I signed up for my own school trip: a day for adults with the First Timers Club (FTC).
Instead of a teacher, Penny Jordan (30), who founded FTC 2023 with two friends. What started to try out new experiences soon turned into a collective of like -minded people in Melbourne, with a social media of around 30,000 and chapters in Sydney and London.
Jordan welcomes everyone and delivers the news that a school child would be enthusiastic to hear: “There are no rules today … just have fun!”
We met in the inner north in Melbournes and drive to the Annusinselwalfestival according to Phillip Island, a celebration of the majestic creatures that collapse from Antarctic to warmer waters in the north with their migration.
While the specified goal of the trip is to throw some whales, most people are here to find something else: connection with others. About three quarters of today’s participants are at their first event.
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“It’s nice to try new activities that I would normally not do alone. And when everything is organized while I get to know new people, I really take out the mental load,” says Julia Caissutti, 30, who was at several FTC events.
Once in the trainer, I will talk to a beautiful woman named Steph. Despite a significant lack of caffeine and not long after 8 a.m., the chat is buzzing around us. It is a sharp contrast to the tram, which I took over to the meeting point, where everyone was buried in their own worlds and hardly produce eye contact.
About an hour after the start of the trip we stop on the Caldermeade Farm to get a toilet break. At this point, it really feels like a school trip: I am the feeling of going back about 25 years – not necessarily a bad thing.
After we have left the farm, the school comparisons end. We arrive in Phillip Island, which is maintained by the gentle winter sun, and Jordan welcomes the group, gives us some background information and then invites us to explore the city of Cowes that are unattended.
I am off with a group with which I talked on the farm. We visit the stands in the festival hub, then eat on the foreland and try to recognize some whales. Despite the recent sightings, we are not very lucky, but the chat is more than enough entertainment. I am impressed by everyone’s warmth and friendliness.
“It is difficult to meet new people as adults,” says Ben Paz, 27.
Later I enter Jordan and ask how it works. “I have to remember that everyone is grown up, they will just start and do their own thing,” she says. “Everyone who comes to these events is so high for something.”
That is what is concerned with something special on this day. I admit that I had prejudices about what the day would look like and who would take part. Although almost a quarter of the Australians say that they want to find new friends, people who are actively looking for friends still conjure up a less favorable picture: cumbersome or shy guys.
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This group is exactly the opposite: a self -selected community that is willing to give up a day of its time to establish new connections. Those with less commitment to the cause are missing, and the result is similar to a warm hug.
After lunch, we stop at another WAR -VERSICHTING PONNER, again without success. But nobody feels cheated by the lack of sea life on the bus back to Melbourne. The day fulfilled the order. Many of us exchange contact details and LUKEN, plan to go to an event regardless of FTC next month.
Almost everyone I speak to says that they also want to take part in another first -timer event. I would like to join you. Like whales we have formed a pod.
