Retreat 2007

One of the unforgettable events I will surely treasure in my stay in the University of the Philippines was the experience of the retreat. It was my first time to attend or join a retreat because I have only experience recollection during my elementary years. That is why I was very excited to have a retreat with my batch mates.
Retreat, during the old times means to step back in war. Retreat means to reflect and repent on the things or deeds you have done. It was the opportunity of the batch to be in a reflection period.
The place where we will have the retreat was at St. John Monastery in Banawa Hills, Cebu City. March 24-25, 2007 was the days of our retreat. On the morning of March 24, we had the first activity at the Tan room because our schedule to go to St. John was 1:00 p.m.
Our first activity was predicting outcomes. It tests us on how we will faces different challenges after graduation in high school. It was not that fun but at least I have learned something. I enjoyed the second activity that is called the plus delta. In this activity, half of he population of the students will just sit down and close their eyes while the second half will tell the person in front of them all the good things they see in that person. During this activity, most of my classmates cried maybe because of the messages and encouraging words given by our fellow classmates.
1:00 p.m. came and it was the time to go o St. John Monastery. We rented three 12L jitneys to be used as our transportation in going there. When we arrive at the place, tae place was a very solemn and silent one. Obviously, it is because nuns and priests occupy that place. The girls and boys have different sleeping quarters. Fortunately, the room where we will sleep was just occupied by all members of the barkada.
We had several games and talk regarding on how to love our self. From that activity, I have learned that we should be thankful to God for giving such gift to us, our own unique self. Before eating our dinner, we had an adoration time at the chapel. Thi gave us the time to talk to God. After that, we had the confession to help us also prepare during the time of lent. During dinnertime, the food was not enough for all of us because some of my classmates did not follow the rules regarding on the number of food that will get.
The last activity, which is called the Circle of Love, was one of the activities I like best. Each of us was given a candle and with that candle, we will give it to the person to whom we think we hurt so much and to say sorry or to ask for forgiveness to that person.
I choose to give candles to Juna and to Ralph. I gave it to Juna because I know I did hurt her feelings when we were still having a conflict regarding on matters concerning our love life. I gave the other one to Ralph because I know that sometimes I become selfish regarding on our relationship. It was almost 11:00 p.m. when the activity was over. After that, we went to our respective rooms and went to sleep.
March 25, 2007 was the last day of our retreat. We had a mass and only few parents were there. We all want to extend the retreat because it was not just a reflection period but it was also the time that we had bonding with the batch. but we cannot do anything because it was the schedule.
Even if the trip was tiring for all of us, I know that we all enjoyed the said event because it helped us in becoming better persons in the future.