The Retreat

This blog entry can never give justice to how those two days changed the way we look at ourselves, each other, and God. It felt like a lifetime and it was a beautiful experience. It feels so good to reconnect with God and with friends you love no less. Now I feel so light and happy and I just know that whatever comes my way, I can face it head-on and with a smile.

The first thing that we did was write our common realities: things that make us scared, happy, and sad. It was nice to know that we all have common fears and common joys and that we share the same blessings and sorrows. By the afternoon, we were divided into groups and shared to our group how we perceived God and the moments in our life where we doubted and was sure that He exists. Some of the things my groupmates shared were unexpected and it just woke me up to that sad fact that we've all been together for four years counting and still we know so little of each other.

And I realized that it's not too late to make up for that. By the evening, we had confession where the priest told me to confess at least once a week. I don't think I could really follow that but I'm glad I was temporarily absolved. :-p

Almost everybody cried during confession and I didn't so I thought that this retreat isn't the same as the last two I had in high-school and elementary where we shamelessly cried our hearts out. I was wrong. By the time everybody was finished, we were summoned back to the room where a Crucifix was laid at the middle surrounded by lighted candles shaped in a heart. Our chairs were around it. Our facilitators asked us to occupy the inner and outer circles and then asked those at the inner circle to put on their blindfold.

I was at the inner circle and this was where the fireworks began. Those in the outer circle would say thanks, sorry, and I love you to the people in the inner circle.

I would not dare to attempt write about what happened because words can never express the happiness and the tears and the freedom that transpired after we said everything we wanted to say. Never mind that we shamelessly cried, we were allowed to, we needed to.

I just realized how much I love my classmates and friends, how much we've been through and how strong we've become after all this time. I know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that that circle, that was where I truly belong, with these people who belong to different groups but come together as one crazy, smart, and happy bunch. I can now truly say that I've made REAL FRIENDS in college and because of that, I can honestly tell people that COLLEGE IS FUN and it is where you truly grow up and become prepared to be an independent in the real world.

Graduation is but two weeks from now and truthfully, from the deepest recesses of my heart, I am ready. It would be sad to leave the University and school. God, how I've enjoyed half of my life reading and answering tests and laughing and shouting and being nervous in those four-walled classrooms that have reared me to what I am now! I'll really miss wearing uniforms and studying for exams. I'll miss the Me as a student. But I guess it's true what they say that education doesn't stop in college or in grad school, it is a lifelong process. As long as you're learning, whether about how to grow a carrot or how to write a poem or simply how to make someone happy, that's education.

And as for me and my friends, CONGRATULATIONS! WE DID IT!!!