My LIfechanging Retreat
So this weekend we had out confirmation retreat to Stronghold Castle in Oregon, IL. Now I heard this was going to be an amazing experience from Jeff and Kelly L, but i had my doubts. Every other retreat i have been to has really had no major impact on my life so i wasn't sure about this one. Boy was I wrong.
To start off a bunch of my friends went jenny, jennifer, kelly s, kelly g, lizzy, vicki, mb, and bridget. We were told to arrive at sfs at 6:30 where we met out lovely school bus, and all of our luggage was jammed pack into the last few seats of the bus. While we awaited everyone's arrival, i found out a lot of sfs people were there including frankie and chad and chris meyers. We boarded the bus where i sat by kelli g. all of my friends were around me and we all bonded together. it was nice because i don't see vicki, liz, and frankie that much. also i guess i should mention the super hottie that was with us his name was kyle. wow words can't even describe. i'm glad kelly got a pic of him so i can stare at it. he seemed like a really nice guy. i'm so incredibly jealous of liz and bridget. HE TOUCHED LIZ!! AND BRIDGET!!
so we arrived there and got all the bags out of the back of the bus and dropped them in the front hall of the castle. it was quite cool looking there. the outside was amazing and the stairs on the inside were winding cast iron stairs that resembled the stairs i fell down when i was a wee child and got a big indent on my forehead. we made our way up some stairs to the great room where we all gathered and formed a circle. we went around the room said where we went to school and what we like to do. after that we got in two circles and talked to everyone for about a minute so we each got to know eachother a little better. then we each got a sticker with the name of a celebrity on our back and had to ask yes or no questions to figure out who we had. i had gonzo from muppet babies. then as we were doing that, this girl came out in this robe and said "the grand masters call so and so" so one by one we were randomly called to go somewhere, and didn't know the reason. i was the first of my friends to go. so i made my way up the dark candle-lit stairs until i reached the tower. then in the dark candle-lit room there was this guy in a black robe and said "please state your name" i said meghan. then he asked "and why are u here meghan" i said ummmm to get closer to God. i was caught off guard and didn't know what else to say. it was really funny because most people said because i have to come here, and there were many long pauses. well after i sat down, kyle sat next to me!! he touched me, i was in heaven!! i wanted to jump him right then and there, but with all the people watching, i figured i better wait. After everyone was up there, we all headed downstairs and were split into out small groups. Now out of all of my friends, guess who got the group with 0 people they knew?? ME!!! it was pretty bad, everybody in our group was really quiet. they did open up a little towards the end. Finally at about 1230 we were done! and it was time for the party to begin!!! We all picked our rooms and ours was on like the 3rd floor and we got a big room with 7 beds. now we had 10 people in the room on friday night. Me, Kelly S, Kelli g, jennifer, liz, vicki, mb, and then our 3 new friends Brittany, and Nicole who go to Stevenson, and another Brittany who goes to LZ. there was 4 people in 2 twin beds pushed together. i was on the end and was basically falling off the whole time. it was the 2nd worse sleep of my entire life!!! we setttled down at like 2 am and it took me like an hour to fall asleep, then i woke up at six and couldn't fall back asleep! it was bad!!!
Well, Saturday morning comes around and we are woken up by Pixie at 720 and all 10 of us got ready by 8 to go to breakfast which was bad. all the food there was bad, it's a good thing people brought good junk stuff to eat at night. well after breakfast the festivities began. we played some ice breaker games such as I've Never..., and I've got mail for ...., both fun!! Next various peer leaders and adults made speeches throughout the day. I give major props to those people, they let us know a piece of their lives that most people would never get to know. We also did a session on trust. we did this thing called a trust walk where we were broken into 2 groups. one group (which i was in) was taken into a back room, while the others were sat down in chairs and were totally blindfolded. We were then summoned to lead a blind folded person around the castle for 20 mins silently. Well someone paired me with vicki, and everybody knows if you put me and vicki in a room together there is gonna be laughter. as we were walking down the first set of stairs she was asking me who is this? who is this? i tried not to say anything, but then she yelled something out and i started laughing and she figured out it was me. it was so funny because she like tripped outside because i forgot to lead her and were laughing really loud and then people were SHHHING us and i was putting snow on her face, it was quite enjoyable. there were more speeches and lunch and more speeches and talks then dinner. we had big plans for that night to have a toga turnabout in our room, but our dreams were smashed. no boys allowed in our rooms. so me and kyle couldn't dance in our togas. upsetting, i know. We had dinner then were told to get comfy and bring our sleeping bags downstairs to the great room. we heard a couple more speeches and thats when i broke down. this girl jacki gave a speech on how she always wanted to be "daddy's girl" and how her dad was mean to her and stuff. i was holding the tears in, but during the song, i let it lose and cried in my pillow. i know exactly how she feels, of course her story ended happy, i know mine will not. but i guess i have come to accept that, i just don't like to be reminded of it so much. well as i was crying i felt like such a loser. i always get so emotional. i get that from my mother. kelly sue is such a doll, when i was crying she held my hand the whole time. she's a great friend! then the next speech came and vicki cried, and when i saw her cry, i cried again. i really don't even know why! so me and vicki ran up to our room followed by our wonderful friends kelli, bridgey, and others. i don't know what i would do without them! then we went in our small groups again, i went in late and i felt stupid, oh well. we talked for a long time. i think we went back and pictured our house and we had to draw it, then list people who are important in our lives and where they fit in our house. i put my friends and family in it. it made me really like my house! we did some more small group stuff, and heard more speeches. then we did this affirmation thing where everyone in ur small group had to say something nice about u. i was the first one people talked about. it made me feel special. even though i was quiet, but so was the rest of my group. i had this connection with this peer leader amanda. i really did not like this girl, i really hated her. and of course she ended up being my peer leader. but it turned out to be a good thing. the stuff she said to me really effected me in a good way. i really respected her and thanked her for the things she said about me, and to me. if i learned anything from this trip it would be not to just people. before the night was over we got sticks and we could go up to the fire and say a prayer for people. i prayed for my mom and grandpa, and my friends. when amanda went up she prayed for me, except she didn't say my name, she just said for someone in her small group that they find they can be themself around everyone and that God will help them get through life. i really appreciate the fact that she did that for me.
We finished that night at like 1230, then the party started in our room. after we got food from the kitchen, we played some music in our room, and just had a good time. we were told to be quiet a few times. we never got our toga party, but there is always next time! i got settled to fall asleep with kelli, kelly sue, and britanny in the 2 twin beds we joined together. i was almost asleep when a few people screamed they saw a MOUSE! i immediately jumped up and so did bridgey who was right on the floor next to it. we were all screaming and Pixie came in and yelled at us to be quiet, we explained there was a mouse in our room. she didn't seem to care. i realized my bad was open with my clothes scattered in the corner right where the mouse was. i definetly thought it was in bag! jennifer being the brave soul she was, opened the closet which was filled with blanets. this mouse could have been anywhere. we then noticed a big hole in the wall, so now we know where he lives. we tried to settle down, but Blythe came in and put blankets in front of the door so the mouse couldn't get out. then she sang us a song so we would fall asleep. it was very nice.
we woke up sunday morning, got our stuff together, had breakfast, cleaned the room and met in the great room for a final prayer. we had this hug circle thing where everybody hugged eachother. thats right, i hugged kyle. he had very nice back muscles! i started to cry once again when i hugged jennifer and the rest of my friends. we boarded the bus and made our way home. we went to 12:30 mass and my mommy picked me up.
the hole experience honestly changed my life. i feel closer got God then i ever have before. and on top of that closer to my friends. it made me realize how important they are to me. and i realized what confirmation is and i felt God's prescence there with me. i look at life differently now. i like the way it feels.
this took me forever to update. i will post about my past week later!
To start off a bunch of my friends went jenny, jennifer, kelly s, kelly g, lizzy, vicki, mb, and bridget. We were told to arrive at sfs at 6:30 where we met out lovely school bus, and all of our luggage was jammed pack into the last few seats of the bus. While we awaited everyone's arrival, i found out a lot of sfs people were there including frankie and chad and chris meyers. We boarded the bus where i sat by kelli g. all of my friends were around me and we all bonded together. it was nice because i don't see vicki, liz, and frankie that much. also i guess i should mention the super hottie that was with us his name was kyle. wow words can't even describe. i'm glad kelly got a pic of him so i can stare at it. he seemed like a really nice guy. i'm so incredibly jealous of liz and bridget. HE TOUCHED LIZ!! AND BRIDGET!!
so we arrived there and got all the bags out of the back of the bus and dropped them in the front hall of the castle. it was quite cool looking there. the outside was amazing and the stairs on the inside were winding cast iron stairs that resembled the stairs i fell down when i was a wee child and got a big indent on my forehead. we made our way up some stairs to the great room where we all gathered and formed a circle. we went around the room said where we went to school and what we like to do. after that we got in two circles and talked to everyone for about a minute so we each got to know eachother a little better. then we each got a sticker with the name of a celebrity on our back and had to ask yes or no questions to figure out who we had. i had gonzo from muppet babies. then as we were doing that, this girl came out in this robe and said "the grand masters call so and so" so one by one we were randomly called to go somewhere, and didn't know the reason. i was the first of my friends to go. so i made my way up the dark candle-lit stairs until i reached the tower. then in the dark candle-lit room there was this guy in a black robe and said "please state your name" i said meghan. then he asked "and why are u here meghan" i said ummmm to get closer to God. i was caught off guard and didn't know what else to say. it was really funny because most people said because i have to come here, and there were many long pauses. well after i sat down, kyle sat next to me!! he touched me, i was in heaven!! i wanted to jump him right then and there, but with all the people watching, i figured i better wait. After everyone was up there, we all headed downstairs and were split into out small groups. Now out of all of my friends, guess who got the group with 0 people they knew?? ME!!! it was pretty bad, everybody in our group was really quiet. they did open up a little towards the end. Finally at about 1230 we were done! and it was time for the party to begin!!! We all picked our rooms and ours was on like the 3rd floor and we got a big room with 7 beds. now we had 10 people in the room on friday night. Me, Kelly S, Kelli g, jennifer, liz, vicki, mb, and then our 3 new friends Brittany, and Nicole who go to Stevenson, and another Brittany who goes to LZ. there was 4 people in 2 twin beds pushed together. i was on the end and was basically falling off the whole time. it was the 2nd worse sleep of my entire life!!! we setttled down at like 2 am and it took me like an hour to fall asleep, then i woke up at six and couldn't fall back asleep! it was bad!!!
Well, Saturday morning comes around and we are woken up by Pixie at 720 and all 10 of us got ready by 8 to go to breakfast which was bad. all the food there was bad, it's a good thing people brought good junk stuff to eat at night. well after breakfast the festivities began. we played some ice breaker games such as I've Never..., and I've got mail for ...., both fun!! Next various peer leaders and adults made speeches throughout the day. I give major props to those people, they let us know a piece of their lives that most people would never get to know. We also did a session on trust. we did this thing called a trust walk where we were broken into 2 groups. one group (which i was in) was taken into a back room, while the others were sat down in chairs and were totally blindfolded. We were then summoned to lead a blind folded person around the castle for 20 mins silently. Well someone paired me with vicki, and everybody knows if you put me and vicki in a room together there is gonna be laughter. as we were walking down the first set of stairs she was asking me who is this? who is this? i tried not to say anything, but then she yelled something out and i started laughing and she figured out it was me. it was so funny because she like tripped outside because i forgot to lead her and were laughing really loud and then people were SHHHING us and i was putting snow on her face, it was quite enjoyable. there were more speeches and lunch and more speeches and talks then dinner. we had big plans for that night to have a toga turnabout in our room, but our dreams were smashed. no boys allowed in our rooms. so me and kyle couldn't dance in our togas. upsetting, i know. We had dinner then were told to get comfy and bring our sleeping bags downstairs to the great room. we heard a couple more speeches and thats when i broke down. this girl jacki gave a speech on how she always wanted to be "daddy's girl" and how her dad was mean to her and stuff. i was holding the tears in, but during the song, i let it lose and cried in my pillow. i know exactly how she feels, of course her story ended happy, i know mine will not. but i guess i have come to accept that, i just don't like to be reminded of it so much. well as i was crying i felt like such a loser. i always get so emotional. i get that from my mother. kelly sue is such a doll, when i was crying she held my hand the whole time. she's a great friend! then the next speech came and vicki cried, and when i saw her cry, i cried again. i really don't even know why! so me and vicki ran up to our room followed by our wonderful friends kelli, bridgey, and others. i don't know what i would do without them! then we went in our small groups again, i went in late and i felt stupid, oh well. we talked for a long time. i think we went back and pictured our house and we had to draw it, then list people who are important in our lives and where they fit in our house. i put my friends and family in it. it made me really like my house! we did some more small group stuff, and heard more speeches. then we did this affirmation thing where everyone in ur small group had to say something nice about u. i was the first one people talked about. it made me feel special. even though i was quiet, but so was the rest of my group. i had this connection with this peer leader amanda. i really did not like this girl, i really hated her. and of course she ended up being my peer leader. but it turned out to be a good thing. the stuff she said to me really effected me in a good way. i really respected her and thanked her for the things she said about me, and to me. if i learned anything from this trip it would be not to just people. before the night was over we got sticks and we could go up to the fire and say a prayer for people. i prayed for my mom and grandpa, and my friends. when amanda went up she prayed for me, except she didn't say my name, she just said for someone in her small group that they find they can be themself around everyone and that God will help them get through life. i really appreciate the fact that she did that for me.
We finished that night at like 1230, then the party started in our room. after we got food from the kitchen, we played some music in our room, and just had a good time. we were told to be quiet a few times. we never got our toga party, but there is always next time! i got settled to fall asleep with kelli, kelly sue, and britanny in the 2 twin beds we joined together. i was almost asleep when a few people screamed they saw a MOUSE! i immediately jumped up and so did bridgey who was right on the floor next to it. we were all screaming and Pixie came in and yelled at us to be quiet, we explained there was a mouse in our room. she didn't seem to care. i realized my bad was open with my clothes scattered in the corner right where the mouse was. i definetly thought it was in bag! jennifer being the brave soul she was, opened the closet which was filled with blanets. this mouse could have been anywhere. we then noticed a big hole in the wall, so now we know where he lives. we tried to settle down, but Blythe came in and put blankets in front of the door so the mouse couldn't get out. then she sang us a song so we would fall asleep. it was very nice.
we woke up sunday morning, got our stuff together, had breakfast, cleaned the room and met in the great room for a final prayer. we had this hug circle thing where everybody hugged eachother. thats right, i hugged kyle. he had very nice back muscles! i started to cry once again when i hugged jennifer and the rest of my friends. we boarded the bus and made our way home. we went to 12:30 mass and my mommy picked me up.
the hole experience honestly changed my life. i feel closer got God then i ever have before. and on top of that closer to my friends. it made me realize how important they are to me. and i realized what confirmation is and i felt God's prescence there with me. i look at life differently now. i like the way it feels.
this took me forever to update. i will post about my past week later!