Gibsons and the winsome adventure of one Erza Applebaum

Or how I learned what my favourite chocolate bar was

Young Sea Cadets on deck at 6 a.m. in British Columbia

I was in grade 12, and, parallel to that, in my last year of sea cadets. It so happened that only I was chosen to go on a seamanship deployment to British Columbia out of my unit. Being a timid introvert, I found the prospect of going on the trip scary and exhilarating at the same time. I loved my time with the sea cadets, and I thought that the trip could expand my knowledge and skills, but I was dreading meeting new people.

I was so proud of my uniform

I met with people from neighboring units at Pearson Airport on the evening of the departure. I knew some of them from joint unit activities, but other units had more people, and so they chose more people to go on the trip. I felt like an outsider, even though we all wore the same work dress uniform: blue dress shirts, black trousers, black baseball caps with names of our units, polished black boots, and black parkas with the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets logo on them.

We got to Victoria, B.C., late at night, and it was raining. We drove on a bus from the airport to the seaport. Once other local units joined us, all 30 of us were…