retreat blog

 This retreat was my first and last retreat ever which made it a very memorable experience for me. It was three days of new experiences and non stop enjoyment. On day one, we got settled into the house, we unpacked as well as got used to the rooms and bathrooms. Period 1's room was the nicest so all the other periods had planned to sleep in there as one big group of girls. We had rearranged the separation of the rooms from periods to a hangout room, a random storage room, and a sleeping room. Anyways, first things first was a session where we reflected on our group and even did some quarter 2 planning like Halloween Dress Out. Throughout the three days we had about 10 or more sessions of quarter planning, break outs, and orientation. Some pretty main parts of retreat that our periods spent weeks planning for were chopped and talent show. Unluckily for my period, we had to go first for both events. For chopped we ended up not being as prepared as we thought because we forgot our main ingredients like eggs and to refrigerate our cool whip. As for the talent show, we kind of messed up our arrangements to properly face the audience and so there were some parts where we yell at each other to move. I think if we had any chance at winning talent show it'd be because of our awesome rendition of Lemonade by Jeremy Passion. In the end, period 3 won chopped but lost talent show! Onto orientation, these sessions were definitely something. I found out my role as Snow White and slide maker and we even learned three 8 count choreographies. On day 2 we did smores at night and even went out swimming. On our third and final day, it was all about our finishing sessions and cleaning up. We packed, swept, picked up leaves, took pictures then about 3 hours before we had to leave we spent our time outside with each other as we waited for the bus. Oh also, we had to complete magic notes for everyone throughout the three days.

My highlights for this retreat would be first of all, the orientation sessions. I had nothing but fun during these sessions because I got to dance and get into character as Snow White. Finding out about the past themes and the preparations behind orientation was also really interesting. I'm pretty excited for when orientation roles around. I also really enjoyed the breakout sessions. My favorites from the break outs were the capes and Hawaiian Core Value bio cubes. These sessions really allowed us to think about others and reflect. Another definite highlight of this retreat was just being able to spend time with everyone. During breaks when we would play volleyball, cards, swim, and sing together were really nice times where I learned more about people. It bonded and grew our relationships with one another and so it was just really nice. The food over the three days were also so delicious. My favorite meal would have to be the spam bowls, I just ate them up lolol. I enjoyed magic notes because I just like how we contribute to making peoples days. When I read my magic notes when we got on the bus, I felt so bad for the low effort I put into writing mine. I'm excited for the weekly magic notes coming next quarter and I've definitely learned the importance of making someone's day. For my lowlights, it's probably chopped. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the actual chopped where we made our Twinkie parfaits but before that it was literal chaos and disaster. First of all, we forgot to refrigerate the cool whip. When we took it out of the freezer bag and checked if it was okay, the container let out the most rancid smell of spoiled dairy and there was just a yellow liquid. Not only that, but while trying to improvise and come up with a second plan, we realized we didn't even have eggs for the cake mix. At that point all we had were strawberries and chocolates and Eliscia's Twinkies. We really have her to thank for our chopped 😭. Another lowlight was the volleyball. Not to blame a whole ball because It was really our faults for playing near the water but when Reese and I had to run in for it, it was kind of scary and funny because we were all screaming. Looking back it wasn't that bad but it was just funny how I had to jump in again right after I just threw the ball up because it rolled again lol. 

From this retreat I learned you really have to pay attention and look at the bigger picture. Like for our chopped and quarter planning, I realized this because our period had to make plenty revisions due to lack of assessing more than just one aspect of being planned. For example, when we had to come up with dress out ideas for spirit week, we kept coming up with vague ideas that did not include specific guidelines. This meant that there'd always be a loophole for students to go through and cause troubles. Another thing I learned is that I need to spend more time with others and open up. I think for the most part I've been reserved and when I do speak to others it's always the same people. When I don't go out and interact or share ideas it can be hard to just understand others as well as create magic notes or even gift them :O, so it's very important to not just be observant but to interact.

The retreat house was pretty cool. I think that as compared to other environments like school, the house keeps us interacting with one another because we are all under one roof. We've bonded more because of the house and spent more time with one another. If we were at school, without a doubt we'd be more separated from one another. Being in the rooms with the other girls, we got to discuss and learn. I felt more of an emotional connection with them because of how we had to care for each other in this environment. The beach and land was also a bonding part for us because we got to be out in nature and knew we could interact with each other in another place that wasn't school. Basically the house was just a place that brought us all together in educating, having fun, and bonding. As this was my first and last retreat, big thanks to the people who owned the house for allowing leadership to go there for many years even with no affiliation to Kamehameha Schools. It makes a big difference and has provided the class and I with cherishing memories and experiences.

I feel that from the chaperones and working with them I have to think more or think deeper and be straight with my responsibilities rather than beating around a bush because I don't feel like doing certain things or this or that. When our periods did goal setting with Mikka, I realized that I don't really confront things head on and instead I just shy away from them. All the alumni's also had lots of insight and feedback to our work and I just thought, I should thinker deeper and learn from these so that in the future we create plans with more stability. If I think with more of an open and insightful mindset I think that's what makes a leader like them.