Self-Reliance is an essay written by American Transcendentalist philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotes, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
You spent part of this week immersed in spirituality and nature with your entire class and other inspirational members of your school community: teachers and senior class members. Think about how your experience will enable you to become a self-reliant individual. How was the retreat beneficial to your burgeoning sense of self? How will you keep the "retreat high" going?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI do not really think that the retreat will allow me to become more independent in any way. I feel as if I am already spiritually independent enough. The retreat allowed me to relief stress and the problems that are holding me down. I now see I do not have to go through things on my own, I always have people who care enough about me to stand by my side. Because of that, I now have the courage to keep my head up and stay confident. I am growing and developing into a better person. During the retreat and after I did not have a retreat high. I made no commitments to myself that were retreat high worthy. I guess this retreat did not touch me as much as the other ones did. This retreat was kind of a disappointment.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I will say that Junior Retreat will allow me to become more of an independent individual. One of the main Spiritual breakthroughs that I had, was in a conversation I had with someone I hold in extremely high esteem. The conversation was all about leadership, and the cross that you have to carry along with it. This person told me that I was a leader, but what he wanted me to know was how lonely it can be. To be a leader, you lose friends. To be a leader, you have to stand up for what you believe. To be a leader, you need to call out your friends when they are wrong. Already, I have lost friends because of the choices I've made to choose a route of leadership. My biggest retreat high, was realizing that I need to do the right thing regardless of the circumstances and those involved in the situation. If that is not enough to keep me going on the right path, I know how many people have their eyes on me making sure I do not make stupid choices. Retreat really helped me realize how I need to live my life, from the second I left the gates of Camp Christopher.
ReplyDeleteI feel like in some ways The retreat could allow me to be independent. But in other ways i feel like sometimes I am already spiritually independent. I feel like sometime retreats are needed to let you get away from school, home and other people. I think that the retreat benefited my by getting away from school and everyday things, this retreat made me sort of closed to some of my classmates. In someways it also made me realize to be thankful for everything I have, because anything can change. In someways the retreat is making me a better person, being thankful for everything I have, and what people do for me. After leaving camp I have realized that i truly do enjoy being on retreats at camp. I can keep my retreat high but doing everything that was done at retreat.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a very difficult question to answer on how we can become self reliant form our retreat experience when the whole point of the retreat was to come together as a class and get closer together as a whole as opposed to as individuals. What we can take from it though, is a sense of faith and compassion for others. After seeing and hearing my other classmates, my view on them as people changed. Retreat made me personally more self reliant by showing me more than ever that judging a book by its cover just can’t work. I was forced to see this on my own, no longer was I needing to be told. I left with a new life skill that will be important to me the rest of my life. On the matter of how the “high” will last after retreat, I would have to say that taking what I learned and putting it into action would be a good start. Sadly, there will be a lot of things that can just totally kill the high. When bad things happen it can take away from the peaceful mindset most of us are in. when things start to go wrong for us again and life begins its vicious cycle once again we can lose site. Love is important and prayer is key, stick to your guns and fallow Gods lead.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if the retreat can help us become more self reliant. On retreat, you are expressing your spirituality with your whole class. There are however little parts of retreat that can help you become more self reliant. For instance, I was finally able to tell my story that I have been holding back for about three years. On retreat, I was probably more relaxed than I have ever been in four years. I just wish I could have kept that peaceful feeling. Instead, I go home and the same crap happens all over again. It is almost as if retreat only helped me for a short time.
ReplyDeleteThe retreat was a fun experience for me. I was able to pray at a hight level then before. I got to share it with my whole junior class also I got to hear their stories and I was able to share them my story. This experience allows me to be more open to others. The retreat shows that there are really nothing to hide because it will just eat you from the inside. Junior retreat will help some part in my life and show what i should and shouldn't do but just keep God in your heart and pray always. Also point the way to become a better leader in many different ways
ReplyDeleteI have been self reliant even before retreat ever happened. I feel like I did not really have anything to share with anyone on retreat because nothing bad has happened in my life for a very long time. I have not been struggling with anything and for that I am thankful. Before retreat, I thought that everyone around me had it together, but I learned that there is always someone worse off than the next guy.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if I already am spiritually independent. Reatreats just reinforces my spirituality. Retreat really let me open up and say what was on my mind. That really help me to relax and relieve some of my stress since i have been going through a pretty rough time. It really helped me to realize that people look up to me. I really took everything in on retreat and to keep everything going I made some goals that I would change somethings. I am going to achieve my goals. Retreat helped me more than I thought it could.
ReplyDeleteAs Dee said I think that retreat allowed me to be independent. In an other way I feel that I have been spiritually independent. Junior retreat was in fact the most moving for me. I was able to pray in a more powerful way as a leader and the seniors and faculty members made sure we knew that. In order to keep my "retreat high" going I keep in mind the little things that I did not notice before and take into consideration how it camt to be. I appreciate my family and friends more and thank God that I have them in my life.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the retreat will help me become more self-reliant. Self-reliance comes from growing up and maturing. It doesn't come from retreats. What comes from retreats is increased spirituality. I will keep my "retreat high" going by doing and acting on what I prayed for.
ReplyDeleteI think retreat made me become more self- reliant in some ways, but at the same time it didn't. On this retreat we had so much time to think by ourselves. I feel like they didn't force God onto us but helped us through our problems. It also didn't because when we heard everyone else's stories it brought us closer so we weren't alone. I think we can keep our retreat high going by putting actions to our words. We all say what we want to change on retreat, but nows the hard part actually acting on it.
ReplyDeleteJuior retreat was amazing. It allowed to feel more spiritual and open up. It was also very moving and very touching. I was able to get the full effect of God with in me. The facility and seniors did a great job of telling their stories and allowing me to connect to them. In order to keep my retreat high is by praying more and taking what i learned at retreat and putting it in use.
ReplyDeleteI do not think retreat will help me become more self-reliant. In my spiritual faith I am already pretty independent. I think that my retreat high will never go away to be honest. Just like every other retreat I found myself again and regained what I was looking for in myself. I will also keep this going by remembering the things that I talked with in my group and remembering to pray and stay close with God in anyway I can. The senior's witnesses and their skit really opened my eyes to things I was taking for granted or bad things I was doing and it showed me how to control myself and be the person I want to be.
ReplyDeleteIn a way I do believe that Junior Retreat will help me become a more independent young adult. When you are on retreat people tend to realize something about themselves they might not have before. Going on retreat made me realize that some of the things I am involved in now are things that I no longer want to be apart of. It made me realize that I do not have to be like everyone else, that I can be independent and be my own person. Junior Retreat is my favorite retreat so far. The kind of prayer that we did was so intimate and intense that it truly made me feel like a better person.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do think that Junior Retreat helped me become more self reliant. I think that the retreat helped us become more reliant because everything that was talked about was leadership. But also I think that Junior Retreat helped us become more together as a class. This does not contribute to the self interdependency that Ralph is talking about. I can keep my Junior Retreat high going by to connect more with my classmates and to keep praying daily for the ones that need the prayers the most.
ReplyDelete