The annual Freshman Retreat took place on Thursday, February 9 and Friday February 10. Freshman are half way through their first year as a Brave, so the idea of spending the night with a small group of students they hardly know can be frightening; however, the frosh were encouraged by leaders and teachers to enter with an open mind. Afterwards, the majority of members of the class of 2020 was glad they attended.

“I had a great time at the retreat spending time with my friends,” said freshman Maui Sze.

A lot of the retreat was focused on bonding the classmates and allowing them time to spend together. However, there were parts that gave them the opportunity to be serious and open up to their small group.

When the freshman arrived at the retreat on Thursday evening, there were many mixed emotions. Some were excited, some were nervous, and others just didn’t really know how to feel. The plans that the leaders had made over the past four months were kept a surprise, so the frosh had no idea what they were in for.

The retreatants began by meeting with their leaders, and checking out their decorated rooms. Then they were introduced to the theme of the retreat, true Colors, and their theme song “True Colors” by John Legend.

Over the next two days, freshman participated in many activities including an entertainment assembly in which the freshman wrote parodies to songs that related to the theme. After they were written, each group performed their songs and competed with one another.

The sophomore grounds crew led freshman and leaders in various board games and recreational games throughout the retreat.

A big part of the freshman retreat is always the service. Each group travel by bus or foot to various direct service sites for two hours. Theses sites included retirement homes, homeless shelters, child care facilities and more.

After returning from their service, freshman had the opportunity to hear talks from their leaders’ friends, a faculty member and parents of the leaders, all which related to the theme of finding your true colors within.

At the very end of the retreat, all freshman had the opportunity to stand in front of the class and share what they got out of the retreat, by answering the question, how can God help you find your true colors.

Students from the class of 2020 stood up and shared that the theme allowed them to open their mind not only about being true to themselves, but to one another.

Freshman Cass Novosel made an analogy to the popular social media site Snapchat.

“How many of you have snapchat?” said Novosel as he began his speech.

Close to all the freshman and leaders raised their hands.

“That’s a lot,” said Novosel. “On snapchat, you can hold down a button and you get offered a ton of filters to filter your picture. That’s kind of like what finding your true colors is like. You have to go through all the filters and find which ones you do and don’t like.”

Novosel’s powerful message stuck with many freshman.

Overall, the retreat ran smoothly and was successful. Leaders had a great time turning a busy two days into a whole lot of fun. They would like to thank Ms. Suchland for everything she did allowing this to happen. Suchland was happy with how the retreat ran and how successful the grounds crew members and leaders were.

The nervous freshman that didn’t know exactly how to feel at the beginning, walked out of the retreat happy with their experience and glad they were encouraged to enter with an open mind.