‘Life Transforming Events (LTE) usually take place on Friday and Saturday, they will stretch and grow you spiritually, mentally, physically, and as well as emotionally. These events will teach you how to work as a team, as and individual, and most importantly, to depend on God. From these events you will learn lessons that you can take with you for the rest of your life.’
-Taken from Teen Mania’s Honor Academy Intern Handbook
LTE’s are meant to test you, push you to your edge and break you to the core. They help you realize that you cannot live your life without God’s help. LTE’s also help you overcome any hurdles that you might have inside yourself and help you become a stronger healthier you. E.S.O.A.L (Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of a Lifetime) takes place in about a week and half; and I am scared to death of it. E.S.O.A.L is the hardest LTE of the Honor Academy, but it is also the most favorite of past interns.
E.S.O.A.L is a 3-5 day event that can take place anytime within a 48 hour time period. You are not told when E.S.O.A.L starts and you are not told when it will end. You’re taken into the woods of the Teen Mania campus and are challenged mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually for the entire event time. You are given tasks of physical and mental endurance and are pushed to the point of breakage. Within this event, you are allowed to “ring-out” which states that you have had enough and can no longer be pushed; you are however not allowed to ring out for the first eight hours.
E.S.O.A.L strikes fear into many interns, including myself. We have been hearing rumors of past events and the tasks they were set to do – again, these are rumors (untrue) but they do scare us. The “what-if’s” and the fear of the unknown drive us insane. We don’t know what to expect or what to think, our imaginations run wild.
For the last three weeks, we have been training to get ready for E.S.O.A.L. Thus the reason for corporate everyday, once E.S.O.A.L is over we will end up doing it once a week until the new interns come in January and then we’ll train for the next biggest LTE. But that is another story and another blog; handle one LTE at a time.
Training for E.S.O.A.L has been rather rough; waking at early hours, doing countless sets of exercises and running miles all at once – it’s rather intense to throw yourself into if you’re not use to it. But it’s nothing compared to E.S.O.A.L. During E.S.O.A.L the commander will speak out random sets of an exercise and you have to do them instantly; no matter how tired, exhausted or sleepy you are, and you have to do them perfectly.
Did I mention that you will be sleep deprived while doing this? During the entire event of E.S.O.A.L you might get around three hours, four if you’re lucky of sleep. But you will not be doing this alone; you will have your company with you and your platoon.
A company has about 30-35 people in it, which are broken down into platoons, which have about 6-8 people. Our company name is “Virginia,” yes the state. We have to learn everything we can about Virginia because we will be tested on our knowledge of the state. That is just one of the many ways they test us mentally.
Ways we will be tested mentally during E.S.O.A.L: we have to memorize seven verses (in order), memorize the HA hymnal, memorize this grid they gave us, memorize our states song (our state has two), memorize any random information we can find about Virginia, come up with three concordances and memorize them, and finally but certainly not least – we have to find out as much information about our major, captain and lieutenant.
Not only do we have to give out random information and do sets on command but we will also have to be walking, running and marching for countless hours; in mud, water, concrete, sand and dirt. For the entire time of E.S.O.A.L we will be covered in dirt and mud. What a joy.
So recap: No sleep, walking, running, marching, exercise and memorization all nonstop for about 90 hours. Why am I doing this again? Not to mention the obstacle courses they put us through.
We had an alumni come and speak the first week we were here. They graduated the HA and went into the military, they said that E.S.O.A.L was harder then all of their training combined.
… Thank you, I feel all warm and fuzzy now…
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