Narrative Essay About Three Day Retreat

“What are you going to be when you grow up?” Everyone seemed to be throwing that question around as if it was easy to answer. I am eighteen years old and must admit I do not know much of what life has to offer. I did not know what I wanted to be; I soon realized I had it all wrong. I attended a private catholic high school that required me to attend a spiritual retreat every year. Mid way through my senior year I left to a three-day retreat. It was a life changing experience where I inherited characteristics that most people lack which are being genuine, compassionate and realizing that life is not about knowing what I want to be, it is about knowing who I want to be in life. My realization began February 10, 2015. I was on a bus …show more content…
We are all sitting in a circle with a small table in the center that holds a lit candle along with a small cross. We sit in silence; it was a small high school we all knew each other’s name, we just never really spoke or acknowledge each other. At this time we were able to speak about anything and everything, starting from what we had for breakfast to our deepest secrets. Everything that was said in that room was confidential. We were asked to reach for the cross if we wished to speak. It was our time to vent without the fear of being judge. After a long awkward silence the girl sitting next to me reaches for the cross and begins to speak about her childhood. She was five years old when her stepfather raped …show more content…
We each got handed a pen and paper, we are asked to write a letter of forgiveness weather it was to forgive some one that hurt us or to forgive ourselves. When we finished we were asked to place it in the fire and watch it burn. As I am writing I feel tears running down my cheeks, I stand up and head to the fire and watch my paper burn. A heavy feeling in my chest takes over, an ache that only grows more by the second. Before I realized it I was on the floor crying. I sense someone coming my way, it is the girl who sat next to me in math class, the same girl that I judged so poorly as an obnoxious girl is now whipping my tears away. As I turn around I see multiple of my classmates fall to the floor and break down crying dwelling in their pain from a simple heartbreak to a death of a loved one. We all showed our affection and support as we got up to hug each other seeking for comfort. A room full of agony soon turned into a room full of alleviation and