Back in November 2012 I attended my first Teen Encounter weekend. Teen Encounter is a religious weekend retreat for teenagers aged 16-20. At first I really didn’t want to go, I was going to miss a whole weekend where I could be hanging out with friends, playing video games or sitting in my music room playing guitar for hours on end.

The main reason I finally decided to consider it is because of my grandmother and my sister. They both play very important parts in my life and they really wanted me to go, I saw how it had benefited my sister and changed her life, it made her so much happier in general and made her really wise for her age. So out of respect for them I told them I’d consider it. I thought of all the pros and cons and realized that I could use a change in my boring routine life. Every day I go to school, go home, do my homework and play music and then repeat it all the next day. Then the weekend comes and I replace school work with hanging out with the same friends as I always do (don’t get me wrong I have great friends but I needed some variety).

I also came to the conclusion that I really did enjoy meeting new people even though I was quite shy at the time. I figured when you were stuck with the same people for an entire weekend you would get to know at least a few of them. On top of that everyone there was really welcoming and friendly so it wasn’t hard even for the really shy people to make some great friends. Finally, what pushed me into saying yes was I needed a “pick me up” at the time. My grandfather, the most important person in my life, had passed away a little under a year before this retreat and I still hadn’t moved on. I was still sad every day, constantly missing him. I went to this retreat in hopes of moving on.
So when the time came to go, I was willing. In the back of my mind I still didn’t completely want to but I agreed to go, so I did, and it turned out to be the single most amazing weekend of my life. Still to this day it is the single most important event of my entire life.
I strongly believe that everyone should attend a weekend retreat, at least once, being a stranger to everyone around you, and letting all of these strangers get to know you and accept you for who you are is truly an amazing experience. Everyone will have their doubts about attending one of these retreats, whether it is religious like mine was or a secular one, but I’ve yet to meet a single person that has disliked a retreat such as the one I attended.

We got to hear a lot of very inspirational and personal talks given by people who were at the retreat, we played games, anyone musical brought their instruments and we would play and sing songs until 1 in the morning. We also made skits, had delicious meals and best of all, we all became friends.

This retreat has given me so much that it is incredible to think that only a year has passed since I first attended Teen Encounter. So much has happened since that amazing weekend.

I completely changed my life around and discovered things I never knew about myself, such as my ease at public speaking, to hear myself speaking a message that not only is important but that I am passionate about. Also there is my interest in writing poetry; I can now say that the feel of a pen in my hand when I sit down to write something is so familiar that it is just comforting pass time rather than a chore, as most people would see it. Not to mention the fact that I am finally confident in myself and not afraid to let everyone know exactly who I am.
The retreat taught me how to find happiness in the little things in life and it really helped me finally accept the passing of my grandfather. It taught me to be thankful for all of the little things and actually make an effort to realize you are thankful for them. It could be something as big as getting accepted into the university you wanted to go to or something as small as waking up to the delicious scent of your mom making bacon for breakfast. When you find something that you are thankful for, take 5 seconds and say to yourself “I am thankful for” whatever it is at that moment you are thankful for. That made me a lot happier in general and gave me an entirely different perspective on the world around me.

After the retreat, I got involved in the Christian community and before the retreat I didn’t even consider myself a Christian. Now I fully do because I get to meet so many people with amazing personalities and I get a lot of opportunities to travel around and help people with their day to day struggles which I am very thankful for.

I can also say that at Teen Encounter I made lifelong friends that I trust entirely and that I enjoy every minute I spend with them. These friends have invited me to their youth group which I attend every Tuesday, we have gone skiing, gone on road trips together, and once a week we go to cold stone and make all of the employees wish they never worked there. We usually have approximately 25 different orders and we crowd the whole seating area. We just enjoy doing unique, fun things as a group. For example once we all got ice cream that described our personalities so if it was all messy and mixed together and mainly tasted of chocolate or fudge, like mine, it signified that you were laid back and messy/unorganized but you didn’t mind because it was your mess.

If you are interested in finding a retreat but don’t know where to find out about them, Google is always a good source of information and if it is a religious retreat you can contact your local church. Everything in my life I have Teen Encounter to directly or indirectly thank for because it has changed my view on things so it literally affects every decision I make. That is why if you ever get the chance to experience a retreat like I did, go for it and leave all of your old life back in “the real world” while you are there. It will just make your experience that much better.