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Junior Retreat
On Thrusday, October
2nd, the Junior class gathered together and went on an all-day retreat
to the Pro-Sanctity Center. The students seemed more open to the
retreat than in the previous years. Junior Joe Michaelsen said, “The
retreat was fun, and it actually made me realize new things and take
more
into consideration. I think
I got the most of this years retreat.”  The retreat was led by Father Michael
Eckel. He kicked off the retreat by explaining to the junior class that the Pro-Sanctity
Center was a holy place on that day
because the juniors were doing holy actions. He then had all the juniors take
off their shoes and throw them on the stage. The students would then have to
go up and find two new shoes to wear for a given amount of time. This made the
juniors realize how comfortable they are in “their own shoes.” It
also showed how it feels to “not fit in.”The day was full of reflection, laughter, activities, food and important messages. Early in the morning volunteers were selected to act out a skit. The skit was of a wrestling match WWF style in Jerusalem. It consisted of two monsters that won all the time and that mocked Jesus. However, when some of Jesus’ warrior friends showed up the monsters experienced defeat. The warrior friends brought their paralyzed friend with them asking Jesus to heal him. Jesus did just that right in front of of the monsters and showed where the real power is. Actor John Behrendt said, “That activity was a lot of fun, we actually wrestled, and learned another example of Jesus’ power. I like how he let us act it out ourselves and put in our own ideas with the skit. He gave us some slack and let us take it to whatever extent we wanted, most would be worried about the saftey. I like how he gave us a chance.”  Another early morning activity was when each student picked a random name out of a hat. They then had to find the person with the name that corresponded to theirs. An example would be David and Goliath. Once they found their partner, everyone would stand in a circle across from their partner. Fr. Mike would ask a question, and each would answer. He would tell the students to move a certain amount of spots to the left or right. For example two spots to the left or five spots to the right. Each time we met with a new person and a new questioned was asked. Abiola Kosoko said, “I learned some small things about some of my classmates that I didn’t know before.” The day was full of many group activities, but their was also individual time for reflection. Fr. Mike gave us a sheet of questions and different topics and sent us off anywhere on the campus to reflect on the questions. Another topic that Fr. Mike stressed was that sometimes we hurt people and we don’t know it. Maybe we didn’t mean to, but we still did. The juniors all took a piece of white athletic tape and put it somewhere on their bodys. This showed how some people would look if their feelings were visible. It also made the students be more cautious of what they say. Then the students went around with baby wipes and removed one of the “scars” and wiped it away with a baby wipe. The main focus of the retreat was to bring the class closer together. It was to build more class unity. Ben Suing said, “This retreat helped me to love and respect my classmates to a larger extent then before.” Fr. Mike handed out a sheet of paper (The circle of relationships). In the middle it had the people you trust and confide in and worked its way out to your friends, the people you know, and finally the people you do not know. He explained that it’s not practical to have everyone in the trust and confide circle, but we should try to get more people into it. The point of the retreat was to try and get more people into the that inner circle. Overall the retreat seemed to be a success. The students all said they had a good time. Blake Suing said, “I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I did.” Ron Kmiecik said, “The retreat was fun, and we all grew closer together.” - Matt Haas |
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