Why I travel 16 miles for WIMPS
I'm 13. I live in the middle of nowhere. The actual middle of nowhere, trust me.
By Kathy Buchanan - NW WIMPS Crew.
Even your Sat-Nav would have problems locating my house. Our rural location has a lot of positives attached to it (or so my Mum tells me). We have a beautiful view, peace and quiet to get on with our family life, and even plenty of room for my Dad to look after his sheep. We are 'living the dream' or so people tell me. For me, the reality is a little different.
I live miles away from my school, 9.6 to be exact. Miles from my friends, miles from my cousins and the shops that I love to visit when I get a chance. As soon as the weather turns at winter, I have to prepare myself for the worst. The likelihood is that we WILL get snowed in, our phone line WON’T work and I’ll be completely isolated until the roads are safer to travel on. For the past two December’s I have been snowed in for 3-4 weeks at a time meaning no school, no social life and nothing to do.
The nearest rural village to my house does have a youth club but it’s really not my scene. The teenagers are encouraged to play games, they get told what to do, and don’t really get asked their opinion very much. That’s why, when I heard about WIMPS, I knew I had to join.
I am interested in politics and journalism and feel that WIMPS allows me to say what I think and feel what I feel. Although I am aware of who my local politicians are, I never really realised that I could approach them if I wanted. I never realised that the stuff I thought was bad about where I lived could actually be issues that I could speak out about. I’m not saying my community is all bad, rather the opposite, living in a remote rural community has shown me that where I live, people pull together and look after one another, regardless of religion or politics. We all want the same thing, to get through the winter as best as possible, to not be snowed in, to have working phone lines, to have salt for our lanes, these things would make life a lot less stressful not only for the adults, but for young people like me.
I’m not going to lie, it IS a long way to travel to attend a youth group, but for me, WIMPS is more than that. It’s a chance to meet other people who think the same as me and a chance for me to learn new skills and to speak out about things that annoy me. I have been a member of the new WIMPS crew in Derry/Londonderry for the past few weeks now and I love it so much. It’s worth the travelling. I know that this winter, rain, hail, sleet or snow, I will be making the 32 mile round journey to attend WIMPS because I am so happy to be part of a youth group that is listening to young people rather than the other way round. I think that I can take good things back to my rural community from WIMPS and get my voice heard because it's about time someone spoke up!
