Loon Lake (Again)

LOON LAKE

Hello, and welcome back to another blog post. Today, I’m writing about my most recent endeavor, Loon Lake. I actually have been to Loon Lake before with the grade 8’s, of course, I was in grade 9 when this happened so it’s been about a year since my last trip. This time around, loon lake was much different. Instead of traveling with other grades, it was just graded 10. This time, the teachers organized a 3-day team building retreat with a company called Pinnacle Pursuits. Personally, I didn’t take much away from the whole team-building exercise, instead I mostly just built better connections with my peers. Let’s move on to the specifics of our retreat.

Day 1:
Day one was quite chill, despite the fact we had to wake up (or at least I had to wake up) at 6:30 am. As soon as we got to school, we waited for the bus to come. Day 1 was mostly us getting a feel for the place, we did a lot of unpacking, met our roommates, and also met the head of the retreat, Johno. On day 1 we also were given these booklets to write in, they included many deep questions about ourselves, which we would eventually go into later on. We also did a scavenger hunt, and a low ropes course, which was for sure fun, but that was definitely not the highlight. That sums up day 1.

Day 2:
Day 2 was a bit more intense. I personally hated the morning, as we had to get up at 7 am. That may seem like it’s not that early, but when your roommates keep you up till 1 am, then you will understand the pain. Day 2 consisted of us doing a climbing wall activity, and team-building exercises in the gym. Personally, I enjoyed the team-building exercises a lot more than the climbing wall, as it helped me build better connections with peers. That sums up our endeavors for day 2.

Day 3:
Day 3, our final day. Today we would finally get to go on the ropes course, which I was by far the most excited for. Day 3 consisted of us doing team building exercises in the main room, and of course, the ropes course. At the end of day 3, we did a game. There were two sides, one would signify if you have, and one would signify you have. I think one of the questions was, stand up and move to the other side if you have been outside of North America. I stayed where I was. After we did the game, Johno did a reflection circle. This was the most emotionally intense day I’ve ever had. Mostly because there was a question about cancer, and currently my mom has cancer, so that really really hit hard for me.

Final Days:
Finally, we are coming to the end of our adventure, for the final days, we went on a hike around loon lake which took about 2 hours. We did this with the whole class. And the teachers organized some games for us to play. Before we move on to the conclusion, I just want to say that the food we had there was legit some of the best food I have ever eaten.

Conclusion:
Finally, our conclusion. Overall, this retreat really helped me get to know my fellow peers a lot better. And I also felt our teachers got to know us better.
Overall I really enjoyed the trip as I really understood the stuff we were learning. See you at the next one.