Maddy Bennett Nature's Tennant

No. [laughs]

[laughs]

I always, to be honest, I always felt like a bit of an outlier at uni.

Um, you know, I think I probably come across as confident and, um, energetic, but like many people often, you know, in outdoor ed you do have to put on a bit of a show of confidence, and just referencing the, the story previously, I, I feel like at uni I was a bit like that, and I, I was looking at all my peers and thinking, "Wow, they're, they're so out there and confident and, and loud," like big booming voices, and they'll easily be able to lead a group and, um, you know, just highly skilled, maybe amazing rafters or kayakers or awesome rock climbers, and just found their niche activity.

And I never had that.

I just was like, I don't specifically have an area of interest, but I, I enjoy doing and being involved in all of it, and I'm just average.

I'm not like, as I said before, inspiring or I don't have these amazing stories to tell like my peers.

And I found that difficult, like, that comparison.

And maybe I'm using this as a bit of a therapy sesh, but it is something that-

[laughs]

[laughs]

...

I've reflected a lot on, is that comparison feeling that I've had-

I think-

... throughout uni and career

...

I think it's a, a serious problem, and I'm gonna say, I'm gonna put it out there as like it's probably more of, uh, a slightly more female thing that happens too.

Um-

Mm.

And but I, I do know people of both genders who are, are really do also say the same thing.

Like, there's a lot of people that I know who, who say, "I'm not specifically good at anything.

I'm just like [laughs] average" when there's these people who do have their very specific great thing that they're, they're good at.

And sometimes, or something that I learnt along the way, because I definitely, um, I'm naturally an introvert, and, uh, I found that very difficult for university.

Uh, after university more so when I had to start leading, because I had to put on an entirely different persona-

Mm