I took this by the water after a snowball fight with my friends on the frozen lake at the shrine |
I first went on the L.E.A.P retreat fall of my Freshman year and it was incredible. There are a lot of cool surprises in terms of what your sponsor does for you, the scheduling since technology isn't allowed to be with you along with having the clocks covered, and just the experience as whole. You have incredible people share there stories with themes behind each one, work with each other in small groups, and learn how powerful it feels to become vulnerable. Being on talk team for it afterwards was pretty amazing too, so empowering. There is a lot of self reflection, laughs, and binding as whole; I highly recommend it even if you are heavily affiliated with a religion or catholic.
After that I started playing Rugby, which was so much fun and I wish I had contact lenses so that I could play again.Anyways, going to the shrine for a weekend is common for sports teams here at Saint Mikes so we went on retreat too. I don't know how it works for each particular sport but we shared a lot of personal stuff, played games, and goofed around. It was more laid back and I was able to do more during my free-time.
Lastly, I recently went on the Emmaus Retreat which was pretty incredible. Even though I'm not religious I was open to the emphasis of God and Faith that was a theme throughout the weekend. We meditated a lot, self-reflected, did scripture readings, and got to relax a lot more than I had been able to at other retreats.
The order of the retreats I went on was perfect because they all guided me on a journey to a better "me." I've met some beautiful people along the way and cannot wait to see what's to come for future experiences at the shrine. Cannot recommend these retreats enough to people, they are amazing ❤