Hello 'Ilima

Leadership has just concluded their 3 day retreat and it was a wild time. We arrived on Wednesday and immediately we had lot's of things to do. To cover the work, it was mainly planning for the future which would help us get a timeline for the rest of the year. Doing the planning was good as it allowed us to have a good understanding of the year. There were also breakout sessions which were nice. The three breakout sessions were about goals, core values, and nice words. We had one session and Mr. Ing had asked us questions in the form of statements about different things. Two categories, list the last 5 Heisman winners and list the last 5 NBA MVPS, were ones that I were very confident and did really good at. The only mistake was Heisman winner as I forgot that DeVonta Smith won a Heisman. I guess the others mistakes would be over guessing as for the NBA one, I thought it meant the last 5 players to win and not the last 5 winners. Moving on, all of the food was really good. My favorites were the steak and chicken and the spam bowl. Throughout all the days, I felt stuffed and I couldn't take another bite. Waking up and immediately eating on the second day was hard but I adjusted on the third day. There was a snack table too but I didn't really take from there. I mainly had drinks because I was constantly thirsty. It was a mix of water, Gatorade, tea, and Fresca for all the days. I have to talk about the room. I was upstairs with the boys and I got the bed. The room itself was pretty nice with no real problems, although the fan didn't work. But the real problem was the ghosts. There weren't actual ghosts, to my knowledge, but we definitely felt haunted. Every time we would go to the bathroom, the handle would jiggle and knocking was happening. For me only, the door would sound like it was getting pushed. Then at one point, the lights kept on changing from dark to bright on its own. The problem with ghosts was at an extreme during the first night. It was pitch dark and we were anxious. I had brought a baby doll named Joseph and she had gone missing. We couldn't find her and we thought she was gone. So when it was dark, we thought that Joseph would start to haunt us. The quiet night didn't help and it took so long to sleep. I had a lot of naps so I think I made up the sleep. I had played a lot of football during the retreat. I wanted to work on my throw power and accuracy and I am getting better. I still make a lot of mistakes but I am learning some techniques. From watching Zhalea throw, I learned to add a jump to my throw which made the ball go farther and be more accurate. Dominic also was critiquing my throws and said that I needed to throw the ball with my whole side. I need to be more consistent as I could throw absolute dots to Zhalea but I couldn't make a good throw while Mr. Ing was watching. I don't even want to mention my catching as I was so bad. I couldn't make the most simple catches so I need to work on that. Good thing I don't want to play receiver. Then we had the two big events, Chop and Synchronized Swimming. Starting with Chop, I was my period's narrator and I made sure to be entertaining. I had spent 30 minutes prior working on my hair so that it was really messed up. I then made some claims that may or may not be true about the food saying that it was the most fresh and healthy dish that couldn't be topped (which it is). The dish was called Apple Le Da which the others didn't really like but I used the idea and ran with it. The dish turned out great and we had amazing reviews. Period 5 won the Chop which was interesting as their dish was a mozzarella stick with no flavor, in my opinion of course. Then there was the Synchronized Swimming. We were going to lose from the start as Period 1 had an amazing cheer and dance. They were dressed up as cowboys and had many funny things happen during their performance. We still tried very hard and I had to do a lot of improv to make the performance more funny. I threw Joseph around, saved William the Whale, and exaggerated my movements to try get a laugh out of the audience and it worked. But Period 1 won and I applaud them. We also did a lot of cleaning that included picking up leaves and scrubbing the bathroom. One of the saddest things to happen was Mark and Mal getting stung by a man o' war. Mark looked like he was in a lot of pain and I felt really bad. One of the best moments from the retreat was when we sat by the water and sang songs. It was so nice and we all were so happy. We also ate smores and my marshmallow was so messy. There were interviews that were nerve-racking when preparing but fine while it was going on. Then we took photos and I think they turned out good. Finally, the trip back to 'Ilima was so fun as we sang songs the whole way through. Overall, the trip was amazing and long as I haven't even covered everything that happened.

There were so many highlights from the retreat so I will just start listing. 1. Playing football with the others. I say this because I got to learn ways to be a better passer while also having fun with the others. 2. Chop. I liked Chop because I had so much fun as a narrator while also having fun eating the other's food. 3. Synchronized Swimming. I have Synchronized Swimming here because it was so silly and goofy with many funny moments. 4. Break Times. This one is very broad but I put it here because it was very chill and slowed down which allowed for rest and fun. Then I can think of 2 lowlights. 1. Night Time. I put this here because it was so difficult to sleep. I had no sense of time which drove me mad and the pitch dark was terrible. The ghost stories about Joseph haunting us didn't really help either. If I go to next year's retreat, I will have to be more prepared for the night because I can not do that again. 2. The Screaming. Every now and then, you would hear screams of death from downstairs because of bugs. It was so loud and annoying and you would have to just wait until the bug goes away. At the end of the day, the pros out way the cons and I still had lot's of fun.

I learned many lessons during retreat, mainly about the school year, but one stands out for me that is kind of ironic. So for context, I played Scar in my 6th grade performance of the Lion King. Scar has a song called "Be Prepared" which brings me to my lesson of being prepared. I always have been prepared in my life until this retreat. I had forgot to bring two microwavable bowls that were supposed to be used and I hadn't thought about some things that could happen. I hadn't thought about my hair products for after showering, a non electric way to tell time, a light source for the dark, and other things that could have been really useful for me during the retreat. I know now to think of every possibility and to just remember things better. This concludes my blog and I wish you all the best of luck. Cheers to another day!