Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda.

A few weeks ago I took our student minstry on a day trip to Valley Fair Amusement Park in Shakopee, MN. School had just gotten out, we hadn't done a trip in awhile, and the students (and me!) were excited to head out and get their adrenaline pumping with the Power Tower, Wild Thing, and other crazy rides. All in all, 33 people came with us spead across 3 vehicles. Super fun, except for that one unpredictable variable- the weather. Our trip was on a Friday, and by a few days before I knew the weather was going to be a factor. Each day closer to the trip the chance for rain jumped up by 10%. The day of the trip, the chance for rain was 70%. And it was raining (wouldn't that make it 100%?!?). I had already had a backup plan of heading to the Mall of America and a Waterpark and had communicated the plan, but the hope obvioulsy was to do Valley Fair. We drove through rain most of the way to Valley Fair and when we got to Valley Fair, it was raining pretty good. Valley Fair was still open, so it was decision time. Go to Valley Fair or go with Plan B. We went with Plan B and headed to the Mall of America. The students were able to do the rides there as well as play at the Waterpark of America- two fun things! As I go through a rather simple thing like this trip, I'm reminded of a few lessons:

• Have a backup plan- the trip would have been a disaster without a backup plan. The students wouldn't have had their swim gear, we would have lost time with processing what to do, and we would have upset (and righly so) students! Most situations in life require a backup plan, even if you never use it.


• Solicit input- I asked the other leaders with me to get feedback from the students. Most didn't care and some (again, rightly so!) really wanted to go to Valley Fair- even in the rain. While I didn't take a vote, getting input was important.


• Don't count on others to help you out- what I mean is I really hoped that Valley Fair would close because that would have made my decision so much easier! But they didn't, and I had to make a decision.


• Prepare to be second guessed- I am not perfect, and I am certainly not a meterologist, but after making the call to head to the Mall of America, some were disappointed (again, rightly so!). They had wanted to go to Valley Fair. And when the sun peaked out for an hour so in the early afternooon, it looked like I made the wrong call and I was second guessing myself . . . until it started pouring an hour later!


• Move ahead with the decsion- once we made the move to the Mall, it doesn't do any good wonder about what Valley Fair would have been like. Or how much we missed not going to Valley Fair, but rather to be positive with the new plan- in this case, to enjoy the new things that we were going to do (And to their credit, the students and staff did and made it a wonderful day and a memorable trip). That doesn't mean that we don't revisit decisions to learn what we can learn, but sometimes we spend so much time on the shouldas and wouldas and couldas.