The first “great
time” that came to mind was when I went on my Emanon Retreat to Big Bear last
March. It was probably the first time I had gone somewhere far without my mom
driving. In the car were Earl, Ace, Anthony, Renee, Moira, and Edward driving.
I remember sleeping through most of the drive and I was scared going up the
turns of the mountain so I closed my eyes and eventually fell asleep again. The
purposes of the Emanon Retreat were to bond with our team and initiate the new
members. This was one significant because usually the new members begin
initiation at our coach’s house, dancing our routine blinded folded outside the
window of Denny’s, followed by running into the ocean and staying there for a
few minutes. This year our coach wanted to try something new. He rented a cabin
and a majority of the team went. We shared beds and some people even slept on
the floor. We all had to take turns cooking or cleaning. On our first night
there we got to relax since a lot of us arrived late. Most of us stayed up
until around 5 a.m. I guess you can say that we kind of went crazy. None of our
parents were there and we were having fun. For initiation we blind folded the
new members and made them do silly things in the house, next we set them in the
Jacuzzi for a few minutes and they each were covered with flower and the
tradition silly string when removing their blindfolds. The next two days we
hung out and played games around the house. On our last day, we decided to go
to the snow but we all got kicked off because we didn’t have correct gear. It
was actually kind of funny because the man watched us leave and stared at us in
the parking lot. We thought he thought we were plotting something, but we were
simply waiting to figure where we wanted to eat.
