In Week 5, the Year 12 cohort went on retreat to Jindabyne. On this retreat, myself and the other boys were able to experience a deeper sense of community and brotherhood. Other year groups have also been going on retreats around this time, enabling the school community to all experience what it means to be on retreat.
What does it mean to be on an Eddies retreat? Being on an Eddies retreat means all of the activities and experiences that you do and participate in, but it also means the company in which you experience it with. Eddies retreats usually involve a range of physical activities, walks and great food.
Another important aspect of an Eddies Retreat is the lessons that you can learn. The Year 12 retreat had a large focus on our future and ensuring that we made plans and prepared ourselves for what we will face. Other year groups retreats focused on other important lessons such as peer pressure and healthy decision making. What makes these lessons different from the classroom is the manner and setting in which you learn them in. Away from school you distance yourself from your regular schedule and life, ensuring that these lessons really do leave an impact on you as you slip back into routine.
What is truly special about this particular retreat is the opportunity it provided for us to come together as a cohort during our last year of school. With the diverse mix of different boys and experiences throughout out cohort, with some boys undergoing an ASBA or having other commitments, it is not as regular occurrence for us all to be in the same place as we would like it. Nothing brings a group better more than the experiences that they share.
Refreshed and renewed, we return to studies for the rest of the semester. We hold onto the experiences on retreat, big and small. The smallest of things, a single joke or experience is one that can leave a large mark on the individual. Looking back at our time at Eddies, I’m sure all of us will look fondly back at our time on retreat.
Joshua Wink
Clancy House Captain