DofE has helped me to gain confidence in myself and my capabilities by allowing me to be more independent and experience new things. For my Gold DofE award I went on a residential far away from home and for the first time for five days and overcame my fear of being fully independent. I got to explore the new city that I was staying in whilst eating new types of food and having fun with the friends I made that I still stay in touch with today. It was great!