Retreat

I know its a bit late to be writing about something that happened towards the start of the year but I felt it was something that i should write about and not let it be forgotten.  So for our TY retreat we started off in the Celbridge Manor hotel.  I had to walk there because my family left at 8:15 and I didn't want to be 45 minutes early.  At 8:50 a.m i embarked on my journey to the hotel across the road from my house, the hardest part was walking up the long avenue up to the hotel itself.  Once I got into the hotel I realized i should have left earlier because everyone was already sitting in a big circle and Mr.Kerrigan was calling the role.  

I walked in after two other girls Emma and Aoife and sat down beside my buddy Orla.  Just as i sat down 4 or 5 other girls came in which made me feel better for being just a tad late.  So to start the retreat a tall man with a beard walked into the room with candles and what looked to be a bible and set it up on a desk.  Everyone was in shock because we thought this year our retreat wouldn't be religious (I'm not against religion).  He started to say a prayer and list off the things we were going to be doing, he said we were going to be in silence for a long amount of time and fast all day, that's when i started to get angry because i need my food!!  After the man finished his prayer he went on to tell us it was a joke and we all broke out in laughter it was such a relief.  

we started off being introduced to the people running it then we began some ice-breakers, they were doing a story telling ice breaker and one like fruit bowl and another one where we had to sit on each other (sounds weird believe me I know).  After these ice-breakers we had a little bit of time to each our break and just chat.  So we sat outside since it was a lovely day and we ate our lovely lunches.  When we went back inside we were told to get into groups of 6 or 7, they asked us to try not to go with our friends but they didn't want us to feel uncomfortable so we could go with our friends if we wanted.

I went with Aoife, Aoife, Orla, Niamh, Eilis and myself I think thats all.  Once we were in groups we were given a piece of paper which had a philosophical question on it, our question was "if you could change one thing about your parents would you and if so what would you change?"  our answer was simple, We would make them more understanding but also keep them the same because if they weren't the same they wouldn't be our parents. *Q the waterworks*.   We decided on our answer quite quickly and so we decided to have a sing song in our little group of old pop songs like the ones from disney channel.

Everyone got a chance to read out their questions and answers then everyone could comment and say their own opinion.  One of the questions i found interesting was "If your long-time partner cheated on you would you want them to tell you?" there were loads of other questions but that one struck up quite the debate within the group.  After all the questions, one of the leaders set up a display in the middle of the floor and we did a game sort of thing where we turned over cards with words which described us, I got enlightened.

After this we had lunch and we were allowed to order food from the bar so loads of people did and ordered chips, this was also the day that snapchat updated filters onto the snapchat cameras so everyone was having fun with them.  We got called in after lunch to do meditation.  The mediation was very emotional and I ended up crying. The day ended at 3:20pm and I went home.  It was a very good day and I had lots of fun.