As much as today marked the beginning of a new month, it also marked the end of a once in a lifetime experience (and also the start of the second half of summer vacation :/). And although you’d might think the ending would be simply sad, I reckon today was actually one of the best days of the entire jamboree for me, if not the best.

Me and two of my friends were going to wake up early to go on a zip line since none of us had gone before. And well, that kind of backfired since we were all exhausted. We woke up around nine and got out of the camp a bit after eleven. Well that much for waking up early and going on a zip line! We were a bit upset but decided not to let our last day at the jamboree be ruined by this. So we went to the food houses and bought ourselves some good food (actually, the coffee I bought was like five times sweeter than a Starbucks drink – which is a lot. So it wasn’t exactly drinkable. And the ice cream we got tasted a bit like plastic. But apart from that, all was good!). We visited the trading post and bought some stuff before deciding to go to the Brownsea Island.

So at the jamboree, there was the Big Zip, which is apparently one of the biggest zip lines in the world, as well as these two shorter ones. On our way to the Brownsea Island, we passed the entrance to the small zip lines. And we just decided why the heck not try our luck and ask if there’s still a chance for us to go on it? The staff told us that they were already closed and that if we really wanted we could go to the bottom of the hill and see if they’d still let us join. We kind of lost our hope there but nevertheless, we still went where the IST member sent us to. And to our huge surprise, the guys at the bottom of the hill were more than ready to let us enjoy the zip line. They quickly gave us the equipment we needed and sent us up the hill with words along the lines of ‘Hurry up so you make it. This is the last group to go.’. And we did make it! We actually managed to go on a zip line! I feel like the experience itself would be much worse if we had to stand in a line for hours. The feeling of pure surprise and happiness made it so much stronger and I must say, we did get extremely lucky out there.

So then we sat down under the zip line and grabbed something for lunch. As we ate, we heard someone covering the song Hallelujah. We thought that it sounded amazing and didn’t think much of it until I realized that it sounded exactly like the cover of Hallelujah by Pentatonix (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRP8d7hhpoQ). We joked around remembering how we heard someone rehearsing Let It Go the night before Unity show and thought it was Demi Lovato. There was no way this could be the real Pentatonix! But we thought it was still really cool to hear because whoever sang it was obviously very talented and the cover was amazing.

After we finished our food, we made our way over to the Brownsea Island, played a few games and chatted with BP before we returned back to our camp, tired but happy, to prepare for the Closing ceremony. Our unit decided to go to the arena a few hours earlier to get good spots and we certainly did get those!

And then, all that was left to do was wait. When the clock finally hit 8PM, someone apparently observed a lightning nearby the jamboree site and it started raining a little bit so there was a weather delay and we had to wait one more hour for the show to start. I think everyone was kind of mad because we had to sit there in the rain for a pretty long time and couldn’t go hide anywhere. And although it wasn’t like it was raining a lot, it certainly wasn’t very comfortable nor healthy having to sit there and wait for so long. Many people were concerned, that the ceremony would be cancelled, which would be many things but nice.

Fortunately, it was not cancelled. It started an hour after it was supposed to and I think the introduction was shortened because of the delay – which is good, because introductions are often kind of boring. And then…IT happened. The MC’s said that they had a special guest coming up and you won’t guess who came up.

Pentatonix!!!

We couldn’t believe it! One of my friends started crying of joy. It was actually them who we heard rehearsing earlier that day and it was actually them who was right there in front of us about to give us the time of our lives! They played so many amazing songs! We got to hear a Daft Punk medley, an Ariana Grande Medley, several songs that are popular right now, such as High Hopes by Panic! at the Disco, and iconic jamboree songs like Sweet Caroline. They wrapped up with their iconic cover of Hallelujah and I must say : that just had to make many of us cry. It was super emotional and to me one of the most beautiful moments of the entire jamboree. I wish Pentatonix’ stage could had been longer but it was amazing so I’m definitely not complaining at all! We couldn’t had asked for more.

(Excuse our ugliness at this picture, we were all very busy crying)

Many of us, including me, thought that was it. That this meant it was over. But damn, were we wrong? The next ones that got on stage were America’s got talent finalists, the Light Balance and I must say, along with the light show that was put on and the super well known songs that they danced to, it was a PAAARTYYY! We witnessed one of the biggest fireworks we probably ever would (they must had been incredibly expensive) and I honestly couldn’t had imagined a better and bigger enading to such a huge experience. Every minute I spent at the site made me realize just how grateful I should be to be a part of this. Every minute brought more joy and excitement, a new adventure, a new friend and I couldn’t ask for a better jamboree. We still had to get back home, and I hate long flights, but I was sure everything would be worth it.

I slept pretty well that night.

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