“FROSH RETREAT"

As a 14-year-old, the last thing I wanted to do was spend the weekend at my Jesuit high school, especially when particularly intimidating senior students referred to Freshman Retreat as “initiation.” The word initiation tends to carry with it a negative connotation in our society—having to perform something utterly ridiculous to attain acceptance into a group. You know, like spend the weekend at school. It didn’t help that the senior students allegedly responsible for modeling appropriate behavior had recently gathered all of my freshman classmates on the field before the first class of the day, asked us to remove our shoes and promptly tossed them into a large pile as the first bell rang… So, you could probably guess my excitement at the prospect of spending time with seniors and juniors for a whole weekend on campus.

Beginning at Regis Jesuit can be an awkward and stressful time, not to mention unpredictable. The challenge of changing from middle to high school is enormous. The freshmen enter an environment in which they may be confused about how to act, what to do, even who they are. Freshman Retreat is a chance to share our community’s light, to offer a safe place and moment of pause in an otherwise chaotic setting. It is a chance for our freshmen and leaders to reach out and be the shining examples of Ignatian love—to be a young woman or young man with and for others.

The Freshman Retreat is an opportunity for our freshmen and leaders to speak honestly about the challenges, temptations and obstacles that are ahead of them, to send a strong message about the importance of following one’s conscience and standing up for what is right. They will explore the qualities necessary for any good friendship, as well as what it means to have a good friend and to be one. The weekend will allow the freshmen to hear how prayer is a part of others’ lives and provide them with an opportunity to experience the power of group prayer. Of course, there may be playful shenanigans, ice breakers and lots of laughing, which is all part of the bonding experience.

 

To my pleasant surprise, the Freshman Retreat changed my life and my entire perspective on my high school community. I discovered a family, not a bunch of senior and junior practical jokers, but people who truly cared about me and something bigger in our lives. In his book In the Name of Jesus, Henri Nouwen writes about Jesus’ request for us to move from a concern for relevance to a life of prayer, from worries about popularity to communal and mutual ministry and from a leadership built on power to a leadership in which we critically discern where God is leading us.
Please pray for us as we initiate (in all the right ways) our freshmen into the values and love present at Regis Jesuit. I cannot wait to see where God is leading us. 
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Jimmy Tricco is in his second year as principal of Regis Jesuit. He generally writes for Inspire & Ignite once a month.