Retreat Blog

 Hello 'Ilima

From October 9th to October 11th, Leadership went on a 3 day retreat and it was a truly life-changing experience. To begin this story is a tough one because of all of the many different things that happened. I'll begin with the beginning. When we got there and unpacked, it was like a wave of nostalgia. One year later, we were in the same house with the same floors and walls which was very trippy for me. Then, across all of the days, we broke up into groups and had sessions which really allowed us to work as a team. We came up with lots of ideas and it was a really productive time. Despite this work, the feeling of being in this house didn't hit at first. I felt normal and it was like a mini field trip. But after a while, it all started to settle in. I started to feel the effects of total isolation and the lack of family and the disconnection to the outside world had me going through some tough times during the first day. But the energy of my friends really got me back into a right state of mind. Throughout all of retreat, I would talk with the others and our conversations would keep me going. We would play many different card games like Uno, Speed, Blackjack, and others while talking that just gave me so much enjoyment. I didn't win all the time, but that didn't matter as the time I got to spent with others really brought my spirits up and allowed me to survive this retreat. I mentioned the sessions earlier and I want to bring up a couple of them now. One of the first sessions was an art one where we had to design our magic note cover. I designed mine based off of my two daughters, Joseph and Gojo. It was really funny looking at all of the other's covers and then looking back at mine because the difference in quality was insane. Later in this session, we got our magic notes and we had to write one for everyone in the house. Most of the others were visibly stressing over them, but I had a simple plan. Pace. I would write a couple magic notes every now and then and eventually I would reach the total I needed. I was actually one of the first to finish my magic notes, turning them in half-way during the second day. On the bus ride home, we got to read our magic notes and I absolutely loved all of them, especially the alumni's. Reading those magic notes reminded me how good it felt because it had been a while since I have received a magic note. Moving on from magic notes, there were two big Period Events that we had been preparing for. Synchronized Swimming and Chopped. Starting with the latter, Period 1 (my Period) decided on creating Smore Cookies. We had cookies, poured marshmallow fluff over them, sprinkled crushed up graham crackers, drizzled chocolate sauce, and then added rainbow sprinkles to create our dessert. I was the narrator for our group and I would say that I did a pretty good job at entertaining the audience. However, our Period didn't win Chopped. But there was still Synchronized Swimming. Broken up into 2 parts, a dance and a cheer, our Period had been crafting the perfect theme that would blow away the judges. We would be Gangsters. We dressed up like how gangsters would and crafted the story of our dance and cheer to be revolved around gangsters. In the dance alone, I shot my Period members, Cheyanne joined a gang, I was hunted down and killed, and so much more. Then for our cheer, we used a mix of our own cheer lyrics with famous gangster songs to roast our competition alive. All of this work was correctly rewarded with a victory which our Period was very excited for. I really want to see the video they recorded because I need to see how it looked from an audience's perspective. Moving on, the food we were served was really good. Throughout the 3 days we had a total of 8 dishes that were all very flavorful and filling. My favorite dishes would probably be either the Spam Bowl or the Leadership Dinner. To end this, I am going to speed through some other things we did. We took our group pictures and I really liked them for the fact that we all look like one happy family. I brought my football to retreat and I actually felt improvement. My throwing was much better and even with a rocky start catching wise, I got better over the course of the 3 days. Overall, retreat was really fun.

 The Group Picture

My Magic Note Cover.

This retreat had some high highs and some low lows. To start with the highlights, the time that I got to spend with the others is defintely my favorite memory. I had so many different experiences with my friends that I will never forget. From roleplaying with Legos, to raging over card games, to listening to the ukulele, I had so much fun with my friends that really got me closer with them. The next highlight would have to be Synchronized Swimming. We had been practicing for over a month, perfecting every part, and finally performing it was very satisfying for me. It was so fun running around and dancing as we told our story. Watching the other Period's dances were also very fun because I got to see their personalities shine from their dance. Period 5 had a really cool fantasy theme and their costumes were pretty neat. Period 3 was a little unorganized, but their cheer involving the Symphony Song was very funny and had me cracking up. The last highlight would probably have to be reading my magic notes. It was very heart-warming to read the magic notes and it made me feel much more whole, if that make sense. That reminds me, on the bus ride home, I performed two songs and it was very fun. I was lost in the moment and was singing purely from the heart and everyone on the bus loved it. Moving on to the lowlights, the first one would be the disconnection I felt. I was struggling heavily on the first day from being so far away from my parents and I was regretting coming. This poor mental state hurt my enjoyment factor of the first day heavily, but I was able to recover with the help of my friends. The last lowlight would be night time as sleeping was impossible. I would toss and turn, trying to sleep in the hot weather but failing constantly. But when I finally went to sleep, I was woken up at 5:30 AM and I was exhausted. I would wake up groggy every day and all I desired was rest. But the retreat defintely had more positives than negative. 

This retreat taught me something very important. I've talked about this in other blogs, but going through what I did made me really feel the lesson in effect. This lesson is to not take things for granted and to live in the moment. I was distraught on the first day because after spending hours in the retreat house, I realized that I hadn't been living. I was always on autopilot and just trying to do what I wanted. But this selfishness made me lonely. I didn't live in the life I was being given. So I am trying to make a change. I want to be with my family and friends more. I am trying to make an effort to live. If I can live now, it will allow me to live much happier in the future. I hope I never forget that feeling I had, laying down and thinking about what I could have done. I want to remember how low I was because it will push me to be better. With that being said, this concludes my blog. I hope you have a great weekend. Cheers to another day!