Imagine an opportunity to get away from the stresses of school.  Imagine days filled with nothing but peace and tranquility.  Imagine a perfect way to recharge your battery and refresh yourself for whatever new challenges may come your way.  Where can you find something like this, you ask?  A retreat, of course!  This past weekend, I attended a retreat with the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group. Instead of delving into the religious aspect of this particular retreat, I want to share what I took away from it and why I recommend that students go on some sort of a retreat.

As I mentioned earlier, a retreat is the perfect way to escape from all of the hassles and worries of college.  As the famous Scottish poet George MacDonald put it, “Work is not always required.  There is such a thing as sacred idleness”.  The week leading up to my retreat was very stressful and jam-packed with assignments, exams, and meetings, so it was such a relief to leave campus, arrive at the retreat, and just breathe.  I had no assignments to submit, no deadlines to meet.  All I had to do was refresh myself and let the stressful energy flow out of me.

When I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and attend the retreat, I ended up learning a lot about myself.  During my normal day-to-day life, I’m often so preoccupied with other matters that I don’t always have time to reflect on things or meditate on how my life is.  On my retreat, I was able to have the necessary quiet time to ponder things that I hadn’t had time to, including minor things such as when was I going to find time to write this blog post, and major things, like what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Attending the retreat allowed me to question things that I had subconsciously ignored and also reflect on my life’s choices and decisions.

Now that I’ve hopefully convinced you that retreats are wonderful and beneficial to your mental wellbeing, you might be wondering how you can attend one.  One solution is that you could find one through one of the many religious groups on campus, as I have done with both Intervarsity and the Catholic Campus Ministry.  However, if religion isn’t your cup of tea, you could always make your own retreat.

Just north of Laird campus is a wonderful area known as White Clay Creek.  You could easily pick a date, trek on up, and bask in the ambiance of relaxation.  Don’t bring homework or phones, and do
n’t consider the retreat to be just another thing you need to cross off on your to-do list.  Just bring yourself, let you mind reflect on life, and consider the retreat to be an opportunity to learn more about yourself.

I didn’t always enjoy writing.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: how ironic that the blog writer didn’t always enjoy writing.  Well, it’s true.  My relationship with writing has been an emotional rollercoaster, with soaring highs and disheartening lows.  However, by some chance it has led me to where I’m at today, and for that I am most happy.

I first started writing in elementary school.  Like the other students, my writing was pretty basic and rudimentary.  However, I developed a keen interest for it.  My stories were a method for putting my thoughts and daydreams into reality.  I based all of my stories off of the 2001 hit movie Spy Kids.  The plot was essentially the same for all of my stories: my best friend, Stephen, and I, would have to solve a mystery, save the world, and defeat the bad guys.  Pretty cliché, I know, but evidently my teacher took notice, and one day the principal of my school came into the classroom, gathered around all of the students, and read my stories to the class.  A principal, reading MY stories, to my classroom?!  At the time, this was roughly equivalent to winning the lottery, to me.  I was so ecstatic, and my excitement about writing grew tenfold.  My mind was then set; I was going to grow up and become a writer.

Soon enough I was in middle and high school, and I absolutely could not stand writing.  What my elementary school teachers failed to tell me was that as I progressed through the grades, writing wouldn’t continue to be fictional and fun.  No, writing was now all about research, analysis, and using facts.  There was hardly any wiggle room for creativity or self-expression, and this was most certainly not my cup of tea.  Like any other situation, I was able to assimilate and adjust my writing style to succeed in this new form of writing, but my passion for storytelling decreased to an all-time low.  I can honestly say that at the time, academia caused the breakup between writing and me.

Only a year ago, I was a freshman here at UD.  As I stepped into my Honors Colloquia writing course, Fantasies of Contagion, I have no idea what to expect.  I had just completed ENGL 110 the previous semester, which was all about academic writing (just like middle and high school).  However, I was surprised when I saw in the syllabus the assignment, “Create a fictional work that includes one of the concepts discussed in class.”  I could hardly contain myself because I was so gleeful.  Finally, after years of hating writing, I was back to doing what I love: writing about what interests me.  I spent more time on that paper than I had on any other in a long time.  I truly cared about how it turned out because (here’s the crazy part) I actually enjoyed writing it and didn’t mind that I stayed up until one in the morning writing it.  It didn’t feel like work to me; it felt…right.  I ended up receiving an A, and my professor suggested that I submit it to a literary magazine.  Yes, it was a struggle, and some feelings were hurt, but writing and I got back together and formed a happy union once again.

Today, I can thankfully say that I still love writing.  I have since increased my writing involvement by becoming a writer for this blog as well as a contributing writer for DEconstruction Magazine.  Also, I am in the process of applying to be a Writing Fellow.  As for the future, I have no idea what it holds.  This hobby of mine could very well turn into a successful career.  It could also become a lifelong hobby, or it could go back to being as painful as it once was.  I can’t gaze into a crystal ball, so I’m just going to enjoy it while it lasts.  Be on the lookout for more – I look forward to writing many more stories for your enjoyment!