Cruel Summer (Fall Retreat?)

Fall break! This weekend was extremely needed! Last week was terribly busy and I was starting to feel burnt out. I was also looking forwards to this weekend because it was Fall Retreat for Northern Christian Fellowship. NCF is affiliated with Cru which is a larger organization that connects Ohio Northern University students with other colleges throughout Ohio. They put on a few joint events each semester and this was the first in person Fall Retreat that I was able to attend. One of the things that I love about these events is that some of my high school friends attend as well! Elleanna goes to Wright State University and we can connect often through collaborative Cru events. It is such an enjoyable time to reconnect with friends!

The retreat was at a retreat center just north of Columbus and it was such an amazing time. We had nine ONU students attend and it really allowed us to bond and grow together. The first thing we did was get settled into our cabins. We had seven girls from ONU so we were paired with students from Wittenburg University to fill our room. That brings the grand total for our room to eleven girls in the same room and we had one empty top bunk. It was chaotic, but we were not in our room too much expect to sleep. Of which we got little! We went to the first main session which consisted of a message, some worship, group and campus times.

dodgeball!

The night ended with a bonfire and a dodgeball tournament! We were broken into random teams and then they drew up a bracket. My team was not particularly good. One game I caught two balls the other team threw, and I was immensely proud of myself! During the last couple of matches the person running the music put on Taylor Swift’s song Cruel Summer. A frenzy broke out amongst the groups of people watching the game! It was so cool to see everyone screaming their hearts out to one of my favorite songs! It is one of my favorite songs from Lover and has been a fan favorite for a while!

mini game winners!

Saturday consisted of another main session in the morning, but before that my group went on a walk around the campgrounds! It was so gorgeous with the trees in the middle of changing colors! We even saw deer! After lunch we had free time. We painted mini pumpkins! They did not turn out exactly like what we had in mind, but they were still cute! We then discovered that they had all sorts of games on the campgrounds! We were able to act like children for a few hours by playing gaga ball, carpet ball and all sorts of other games! It was fun, but I am so sore! I do not know how I was able to play like that for hours! It was one of my favorite moments because we were just goofing around and having fun being kids. 

costumes!

There were other things going on while we were goofing off like ultimate pumpkin and mini games. After free time, we went to the last evening session. It was filled with enjoyable conversations and lessons. Later that night we watched the costume contest! I did not dress up, but everyone else at least brough a onesie! 

lots of games

Another favorite memory from this weekend was the amount of euchre we played! At night we stayed up and played all sorts of games including euchre, jimmy and codenames. I learned how to play euchre last year and I love it! We now teach everyone how to play and it has become a staple NCF event game. The last night of the retreat we were playing games and then everyone wanted to go outside at around 1 o’clock in the morning. I was terrified of getting in trouble, but everyone was determined, and I was not going to leave them alone. We walked outside to where the fire pit was, but there was no longer a fire. It ended up being fine and we did not get into trouble, but I was still nervous. In the morning we had a short session then packed up and headed out! It felt long and short at the same time, but it was worth every second of it. I genuinely loved growing deeper in faith and in friendship with others.