SWC July 2022 Leader Application

1. Tell us about yourself! Please include your nickname and timezone
Greetings! I’m El—I’m a 14+ highschooler who currently resides in the timezone of nzdt and enjoys dabbling with new subjects. Though how I manage to navigate my way through the murky waters of life, I am still not sure of. A regular day for me involves playing piano or guitar, writing (poetry especially), testing out my digital art skills, and falling down rabbit holes of Wikipedia pages while researching. I’m a novice archer, aspiring writer, pianist, and an active participant in many of my school’s opportunities (take debating and philosophy, for example). As a pianist, I truly believe that it is an incredible form of art and will reward those who dedicate themselves. And as previously mentioned, I also play the guitar after a friend started teaching me only a few months ago. Though it may not be where my strengths lie, it's not only fun, but when you strike the six strings together it creates a beautiful mellow and rich sound.
I’d also like to confess that writing may not be my greatest strength at this point in my life, but it is something I enjoy. Writing is a gateway out of this world; a haven you can escape to. It’s magical.
I hope to see ya’ll around this session!

2. Have you participated in SWC before? If not, what experience do you have in creative/non-fiction writing?
I believe that I have had relatively good experience participating in SWC, though never thought to apply for leader until now. Nonetheless, I believe that all my previous sessions have been successful. Below I’ve added in a short description for all my previous sessions, though for all of them I can safely say that I did my best to complete almost all the weeklies and dallies. I fell in love with SWC from the start, and after finally building up the courage to do so, I’m extremely keen on leading.
As I’ve never applied before, I also find it necessary to answer the second question. Yes, I have had a reasonable amount of experience outside of SWC. This involves winning and being nominated for multiple English and literacy awards + acknowledgements.

SWC July 2020: This session is a complete blur to me for no reason, but I believe I was in the Adventure cabin.
SWC November 2020: I wasn’t too active for this session, being away for most of it. I was placed in the Mythology cabin!
SWC March 2021: Ahaha yes I do remember this session! I was in the epic Hi-fi cabin and I believe one of my leaders was Bakie? However I am not entirely sure whether it was March 2021, that was an estimate.
SWC July 2021: I signed up as a camper in July and was placed in the Mythology cabin again
SWC November 2021: I was a camper in the Fantasy cabin with @Fawnae, @TandiaTES, @Scarlet-Stars, and @Puppycutest. I wrote around 45k words!
SWC March 2022: My most recent session of SWC, where I was in the Dystopian cabin with my leaders being @bixez, @Polarbear_17, @Elvin_Wonders, and @Waterlily7859 I wrote almost 50k/35k words ^^

*I understand that some of these sessions I have taken part of were done so on different accounts, though unfortunately I am not too keen on sharing which ones those were other than that my most recent session was done on the account @RoadkilI. However, I will be happy to share the names of the other accounts with a host if necessary ^^

3. What genre cabins would you be interested in leading?
Ahahaha I see you finally settled on one question
While I am flexible and I am capable of leading any cabin, I do have preferences, those being Dystopian and Poetry. Though a cabin genre does not determine whether the session is enjoyable or not, and I find that listing my least-preferrable cabins would be unnecessary. I have yet to begin the ever-so-popular cabin bingo, so by all means, take you pick!
Yes, only two preferences. It’s a brutal world out there you know B)))

4. Excerpt
In typical leader application fashion, my excerpt can be found in the description in the form of a forum post. Though I may tell you that you have the choice to either read a piece of one of my original writing’s, otherwise you can select a piece from my poetry collection linked in the description. You are free to read any of those, but please please please also look at a piece of one of my original writing’s I also linked in the description.

5. Dedication
As one could expect, I have school, and so I cannot maintain perfect activity during SWC. Though I will be able to set aside a realistic amount of time. Assuming I am presented with an offer, I can say that as a (co)leader my first priority would be to add any in-cabin points or words to my cabin, next cabin points that go towards overall cabin standings and checking in with any recent SWC events, and finally completing the activities and checking in on campers. On weekdays, I can be active 15 minutes-60 minutes after school hours, and then on weekends 60 minutes and anywhere above. If any short periods of inactivity were to arise, I’d make sure to notify my leader, and in the unlikely case of a longer period of inactivity I’d not only inform my leader, but also the hosts. Please take note that these estimated times of activity on weekdays and weekends may waver just a bit, and I will always put my own life before SWC, because of course we can’t forget Sleep >SWC

6. Why I want to lead.
I’m opting to lead a cabin this session because I want to be a part of the massive team of leaders, hosts, and co-leaders that make SWC such a wonderful environment for all campers and watch the community grow even further. Not only because of the power one given a leadership role is granted, but also to connect with others on a personal level and really get to know them from the inside out. And whether that’s bonding over writing or another passion, watching someone grow and helping them create their own path to follow will all be worth it in the end, no matter how hard the journey may be.
The experiences SWC has offered me has changed my life greatly. I don’t think I would be the person I am today writing this application without all the amazing memories and experiences SWC has gifted to me. To this day, I have treasured them. And I would like to give back to the SWC community by giving campers these same opportunities that I had that have made me a better person. I want to help them become the best versions of themselves and encourage them to join this large web of seriously talented, smart, and kind people.

7. Why me
But why me, you ask? I can provide campers with a passion for writing and getting involved. I have always remained loyal and dedicated to whatever it is I believe in, and in this case SWC. I would never be afraid to offer my ideas and share my opinion with my leader and hosts and would always be happy to contribute to their own ideas.
In other words, you could say that I am a master liar and manipulator, a common trait shared amongst many great and influential leaders. I understand that as a (co)leader I must appear strong and stable, and I believe that I am capable of doing so. I can easily put up a façade that masks my own concerns about whatever is going on in my life. Though of course I still prioritize well-being over competition, and I can put up boundaries and communicate with my peers if something were to happen. I am also the only one in bed before 12am here so I would be great at this B) /hj
I’d also just like to put one more thing out there: SWC isn’t about winning cabin wars or sustaining your place in cabin rankings. It’s about having fun. As a (co)leader I would always check in on my campers and provide them with a stress-free experience and make sure they are all staying satisfied and healthy, no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears I have to put in to make that possible. I understand that life can sometimes take a twist and someone needs help or wants to drop out. I understand this, and it is OK. I am willing to do all I can to help them overcome these issues, and most importantly make sure they stay happy and looking after themselves.

8. Collaboration skills
I believe that I have relatively strong collaboration skills, though like any typical mortal I of course have my flaws. But I’d like to end this question on a positive note so let’s start with my weaknesses, shall we?
However I believe collaboration is one of my key strengths, I’m not here to tell you how flawless I am and will of course admit to my faults. Those who know me best know that I have trouble saying ‘no’ to things and end up taking on more than I can handle. In the past this has resulted in myself feeling stressed and burning myself out. Though of course I still strive to work my way around this obstacle and hope the day that has yet to dawn brings me great success. And to aid me on this journey, I’m constantly asking my peers whether I’m doing enough or if I have the bandwidth to take on more.
Another one of my areas I would wish to work on more is my lack of confidence. I’m often worrying whether my peers think highly of me or if they strongly dislike me. Though I try to remind myself that every one of us, including myself, bring a set of unique talents and personalities to the table. Otherwise, I feel as if there’s some great mass of stress and panic sitting on my shoulders and weighing me down.
And of course, we can’t forget about my strengths in this ever-so-important area Once again, I would like to say that I would never be afraid to offer my ideas and suggestions to my (co)leaders/hosts. Though of course I shall always welcome their own with open arms and have the ability to mask my own concerns about their opinions as I am aware that it would always be best for the cabin and campers. I’m a master compromiser and of course could *always* make something work out no matter the obstacles I may have to swerve my way around beforehand.

9. Unique Plans
I’m more interested in an offer for co-leader, but I’d never turn down a good opportunity so I’ll answer this question regardless.
It may be difficult to make the SWC experience unique to *everyone*, so because of that, my plans are to interact with all my campers to learn who they are as a person and cope for all their needs. I hope to bond with them all and make a special connection that shall hopefully last longer than one SWC session.
But when I think about it, this isn’t *unique*, this is special. I find that there are actually a lot of things that set these two words apart, and people tend to muddle them up a bit. Looking back as a camper, all I can recall are the fun storylines and activities that all tie into the genre and cabin. There was a surprise around every corner, something that campers looked forward to and truly enjoyed. While I cannot think of activities to list here right now, I can assure you that I would make something work, something that could unite a cabin.
But again, bonding.
The fun I had, bonding with people, especially leaders. That just felt incredible, special, unique. I’ve noticed that in many cabins they set up mini in-cabin dailies and weeklies. But these are all writing-based. I wouldn’t just create writing-based activities, but also activities that would bring the cabin closer together.
Last session, I had the best time with the creative plotlines my leaders came up with. I’d like to do something similar, but with my own spin on it. For example, the leaders could be hypothetically locked up or dictated by said leaders and the cabin’s currency brings them one step closer to being freed and the campers are to perform tasks. But no matter what I do, I want the campers to have fun doing it

Author's Note
Pleasepleaseplease If you have actually read this far check out the project instead (which can be found here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/683663245/). I may have not properly edited a lot of the answers here though am almost certain I did so in the project. I also spent a lot more time on that sketching out the drawing and picking a theme unlike here where I just copy and pasted stuff from my microsoft word document, hehe . Good luck to everyone else applying and have a great session whether you're a (co)leader/host or not <3