I'll Be Back

By Matthew Coutu, KSU

After attending my fair share of youth events in the past, I had high hopes for a new retreat that was aimed towards young adults. Since attending a few province networking conventions, I knew just how difficult it could be to put together a retreat aimed towards college-aged students. As skeptical as I was upon arrival, my experience couldn’t have been any better!
 
It had been a while since I’d last made a trip up to Mikell, so I was excited to finally be back and see some old friends. Following a morning class on Friday, my friends and I from the KSU Canterbury Club loaded up our cars and headed up to Toccoa for the first ever Diocesan Young Adult Retreat. The ride up was a blast, but I was nowhere near prepared for the amount of fun I would have during the weekend as a whole.
 
We were all put into small groups and ended up discussing things that were pretty relevant to people of our age group. That weekend we talked about keeping a balanced life, staying true to our faiths, and even the consideration of discernment. I was pretty pleased with how seriously our group handled the discussions, and because of this, I got a lot out of it. At times, the conversations got pretty deep, and through this, our group got pretty close.
 
The weekend as a whole was organized flawlessly. There was a perfect medium between free time and organized time. As a college student, I was happy that we were given enough liberty to do what we wanted within reason, such as playing disc golf and hiking to the cross.
 
Meeting new friends from other colleges around the diocese was amazing, and it was awesome to reconnect with old ones as well. The staff who designed this retreat did a phenomenal job, and I’m sure that it got others interested in getting involved too! This fall, I will be transferring to a university in a different diocese, but you can bet that I’ll be back for the next young adult retreat in the future.