Freshman Retreat

Freshman Retreat was Sunday, October 7 to Tuesday, October 9, and, as a Freshman, I was able to attend. The bus ride was short, but it was fun to talk with my friends. On the first day we got there, we went straight to our cabins to change for rafting. To go to rafting we were divided into two different groups and had orientation. Orientation was very informative and without it, I think we would not be able to raft. During rafting there are many different classes of rapids. My group had six girls in it, plus the instructor, which made seven. At first when we started, we were so scared and our instructor was very annoyed with us. He told us that we needed to work as a group, and we needed to practice paddling. So we did. We needed to practice as a group because we were not in sync,which caused the raft to go different ways. Most of our rapids were class four, which is not that bad. During the experience our group bonded so much, and we had so much fun. Rafting was an amazing experience because the views were amazing and it was my favorite activity to do.

The next day some of the activities were paintball, high ropes/low ropes, and the adventure race. My first activity was paintball, and I still have the bruises. At first, the orientation was very slow and I was zoning out, but then when we started playing it was so much fun. We were divided up into two teams, and the first team to get the flag and run back before getting shot by a paintball was the team that won. After we won I was out of breath from running around, and I thought it was so cold. Before starting, our group made a game plan. Planning ahead worked, because within two minutes our group won. We then ended up playing paintball the rest of the activity period.

During the afternoon activity period after lunch, there was the adventure race. In the adventure race there are seven different obstacles we had to do. My favorite was the last one which was the slip and slide. Most of them had to do with team building and creating a community. Two of the obstacles had to do with mud. I personally am not a fan of mud, but it was good to try new things. We army crawled through the mud onto poles that we had to go over and under. When I asked fellow freshman Annie Levy how she enjoyed it, she said, “I loved it. Even though in the moment I felt absolutely disgusting, afterwards I was like, that was kind of fun, But I would NEVER again.” I would agree that most of the freshman class would never do the mud run again.

That night we had a campfire and sang many songs. The most memorable song was “Take me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver. Some people - including me - were singing it as loud as we could. At the campfire, we had marshmallows and the student association group led us in many activities. I feel as if our grade bonded during that experience, and it was the most memorable part of the trip.

The next day was our second activity period, and I had high ropes. I am normally terrified of heights, and if it weren’t for my friends and peers I would have not been able to go down the zipline. To get up to the zipline, we had to hike up a mountain and wow - was I winded. After the hour long wait for the zipline it was so much fun, and I would do it again if I could. The giant swing was right after the zipline, and I was not expecting it. I thought it was going to be where people raise you higher, but it was actually where you are on your own harness and slid off onto the ropes, which grab you. It was such a scary experience and to be honest I did not enjoy it. After our activity period we got on the buses to go home and went back to Galloway. I had so much fun on the freshman experience for 2018.

By Sarah-Anne Seligman