FB College Retreat 05

I think I shall give a brief report of my weekend at Faithbuilders' College Retreat, July 1-3, 2005. It was held at the Sibley Castle in Franklin, PA... VERY charming atmosphere. True to form--and I'm sure this will be of no surprise to you--I had been dreading that retreat as if it were a jail sentence. New things are so nerve-wracking! We all felt like such impostors... sneaking in there and acting like intellectuals. [Cousin] Jolynn assured us we would “love it,” So Sara, Sharon, and I just gritted our teeth and made the journey early Friday morning. Because none of our cars were fit to handle a trip of that magnitude (nine hours), we rented a little Pontiac Vibe.

I am happy to report that the weekend was just wonderful, and I'm so glad I went. It was much more relaxing than I had even hoped for. No curfews, no rules, no hose--we were even treated as if we were adults. It also helped that there were some other people there that I knew, including cousins Andrew, Jolynn, and Maria; and friends Caleb and Lyle.

There were about 35-40 students there, and they divided us all up into what they call "Small Groups." It was a little intimidating at first, but I ended up enjoying my group very much. As for what we did in Small Group... we just talked and identified with each others' college experiences. It is so nice to know that there actually are other Mennonites floating around campuses out there.

It was also amazing to see the variety in majors. Here are some I remember. In addition to nursing, by far the most popular, there was also: dairy science, veterinarian, finance, accounting, English, healthcare administration, business, music, pre-med, social work, history, geography, occupational therapy, industrial engineering, and elementary ed. There was also great diversity in the Anabaptist "brands" that were there... from Beachy to River Brethren to Horning Mennonite to Conservative Mennonite. And yet, we could all identify with each other, and that was pretty neat.

We were given the assignment of each Small Group coming up with a skit that demonstrated some of the tensions we face either with college and community or with being a Mennonite on campus. It was fun to laugh and make fun of ourselves. I'm already looking forward to next year.