graduate retreat

I've been in my school since kindergarten. 

If you compute it, it's been fourteen years since I started studying here. 

Which is absolutely crazy to me since I still kinda remember transferring to my school. I transferred in the middle of kindergarten because my kuya also transferred earlier in the school year, and my parents wanted us in the same school. 

I was really scared. I think one of my core memories comes from my very first day -- I walked in without my mom, without a uniform while everyone else had one on, and I cried.

In hindsight, I was probably really embarrassing. 

But enough about that. Yesterday, I came back from my graduate retreat. Context: I go to a Catholic school and this year we were required to go to a retreat. The new students who only started studying here last year already went on their peace retreat, so us old students joined the graduate retreat. 

Thursday after school Lane and I went shopping for stuff for the retreat. I got a bunch of stuff to bring + stuff to make retreat letters with. I made the retreat letters really late at night, and everyone I talked to was like "do people even make retlets anymore?" My answer is yes. I will make retlets because they're cute and I like making letters.

Friday morning I got to school wayyy earlier than usual. I found my classmates and we waited for the bus together. I was super excited. I fell asleep on the bus and when we finally got to the retreat house, the air was so fresh I had to breathe it all in. And then they took our phones since electronics weren't allowed in the retreat house.

My school has its own retreat house. I'd been here two other times before (6th and 7th grade) but I honestly didn't remember what it looked like. Seeing it again was so nostalgic! 

They fed us as soon as we got there. Actually, they fed us a lot - snacks, lunch, afternoon snacks, dinner, and breakfast the next morning. We were very well fed.

I'm going to be very vague about this. I'm honestly not sure how much I can talk about the retreat since I don't want to spoil it for anyone who's going next year...

We had three talks and I cried a lot to Cy. Reading through my blog, you probably already know I'm a bit of a crybaby, but this one was different...I had a lot of feelings and every time I talked tears would stream down my face. Cy, thank you for being my therapist T_T

Other notable events: we had confession and I cried to the priest. Hmm, I probably cried more than I've ever cried ever on Friday. We also had a bunch of really fun activities. This was probably the most fun retreat I've ever had.

Which makes me really sad, since this is the last time I'm ever going to be on a retreat with my high school peers. Our speaker said something about how we're never going to see each other again after we graduate and it made me cry (oops).

We had mass and we prayed a lot. I think we went to sleep around 10:30 since I took a bath before going to sleep (so I wouldn't have to take a bath in the morning). I cuddled with Cy the entire night.

In the morning, I got more retlets! In total, I got six retlets. I love giving and receiving letters. I save all of them, if you were wondering.

retlets!

It was honestly such an awesome and spiritual experience. I'd never ever felt so religious in my life. I had so much fun with everyone. 

Just in case anyone from my batch is reading this, let's hang out when we're free! It will be my treat.