YA Retreat 2015

In September of 2015, my church announced that they were going to have their first ever retreat for young adults at the end of October. Even though I thought it sounded fun, I knew I couldn't go because it cost a lot of money (I only had a small job that didn’t pay much at the time). I blew off the thought of even going until one day at church, my friend told me she was going and she thought I should go, too.  I told her my reasons as to why I wasn't going and she understood, but later that night, I couldn’t seem to get the idea of going on the retreat off of my mind. At dinner that night, randomly in conversation, I told my mom about the retreat just to see what she would say and she told me that I should go if I wanted to. After explaining to her about how expensive the trip was, she simply told me we can afford it if we start saving up now (I ended up paying for the whole trip on my own which I was so proud of!), but for some reason, I still kept finding reasons why I couldn’t go - all having to do with fear. For example, I didn’t know any of the young adults at my church except for my ONE friend who I had only talked to twice at church. Everyone else was unfamiliar to me and there were over 200 young adults going… how intimidating is that? Another reason I told myself I couldn’t go is because of the distance. We would be going to Dallas and I would be going with 200 strangers. That just scared me a little bit. Yet after all of those thoughts and fears, God was still tugging at my heart to go. I just felt like I needed to get out of my comfort zone for once in my life. He had greater plans for me; MUCH GREATER than all of my fears. After thinking it through for a little while, I decided to take a leap of faith and have courage.

My favorite quote ever is this one: “Everything that you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” And I just felt like it related to me at the time.

A few months before this retreat, I had been praying for new friends in my life that would be positive influences on me because I had been surrounded by mostly negative people for the last few years and unfortunately, most of my good friends from high school went off to college in August. But God definitely answered my prayers through this retreat. The first moment I walked into the church that Thursday morning, I instantly met new people. We were divided into four teams (50 people each) and we were stuck with each other for the rest of the weekend which wasn’t bad at all. It was so much fun! Honestly, choosing to go on this retreat was one of the best choices I’ve ever made.

Thursday night, we dressed up in 80s-themed outfits and had an amazing service worshipping Jesus. Friday morning, we came to breakfast in pajamas (and onesies!) and then all day that afternoon, we had competitions against the other teams.

(Those are ice cream sandwiches on my onesie.)

That night we had another worship service and then an after party where we dressed up in Homecoming dresses and danced the night away.

Saturday morning, we had another amazing service and then packed up to go home. This memory and trip was definitely life-changing and it’s an experience I’ll never forget. I walked into that retreat knowing only 1 person and I left with 50 new friends who I still talk to and see regularly. It’s changed my perspective on many things and it’s given me courage to face my fears. All glory to God and His amazing plans!

"Ever After" VS. "The Albatross" Research

For my research paper, I decided to do the poems, “Ever After,” by Joyce Sutphen and “The Albatross” by Kate Bass. I originally did “Ever After” and “Valentine” on my poem essay, but unfortunately, I couldn’t think of good subjects to come up with to research for this essay, so I decided to choose another poem. I also thought about using my Stitches essay to research for this paper, but my topic was about the “languages” that David and his family use throughout the book and I thought that might be too hard to research as well.

In this paper, I’m going to research the topics of divorce and separation and how it affects the people in the relationship. In “Ever After,” it is clear that the two people aren’t married anymore, but it’s harder to tell the status of the people in “The Albatross,” so that’s why I’ve decided to use the word “separation” as well. It’s clear that the person still has a key to her house because it says, “I wait until I hear a gate latch lift / the turn of key in lock” (Bass 14-15) so he must be close enough to her that he owns a key to her house. But the idea that they are separated comes from the lines “I sit and she fingers the beads until you speak / in a voice that no longer seems familiar, only strange” (17-18). This indicates that they’ve been away from each other so long that his voice doesn’t sound the same to her anymore.

This same “notion” that these people are different from each other (and are no longer close) reappears in “Ever After,” as well. In the poem, it says “what am I to you now that you are no / longer what you used to be to me / who are we to each other…” (Sutphen 1-3). This gives the idea that since they are separated, they have no connection anymore and the feelings they once felt with ‘familiarity’ are gone. I hope that makes sense to you.

I’d also like to touch on (in the paper) the fact that both of these authors are women and how separation or divorce affect females because I’ve heard that it has a different impact on both of the genders. I’ve researched a little bit already and I’ve found some good information. I’d also like to possibly research about having an “identity” in relationships if that makes sense. I’ve heard a lot about how when someone is in a relationship, they suddenly become connected to the other person and the two people do everything together and go everywhere with each other. But when they decide to get a divorce or separate, it definitely affects both people because they suddenly have to figure out who they are without the other person in their life when they’ve dedicated so much time together. Lines 1-3 in the poem “Ever After” (that I mentioned up above) talk about the subject and I could probably connect the “familiarity of the voice” from “The Albatross” as well. I’m not exactly for sure about that but I’ll see when I start writing my paper! I hope all of this made somewhat sense to you.