Fear of Falling

This past weekend my sorority, Alpha Xi Delta had our yearly chapter retreat. This year we did something a little different and decided to go off campus. We went to Heartland Conference Retreat Center in Marengo, Ohio. Traveling to Heartland took a little less than two hours. The main reason for the day was to encourage sister bonding and get to know about not only you sisters, but also about yourself.

Once we got to the conference center we were split into two groups. One group was going to team

challenge and the other was going to zip lining. I was in the zip lining group, and was a little nervous as I have a slight fear of heights. Even though I had this fear, I was determined to climb up the telephone pole and let myself ride through part of the woods on a zip line. I was the fourth one in my group of 24 to go because I knew if I didn't go in the beginning then I may not go at all. After going through it once and being unhooked from all the gear, I actually really enjoyed it. For the next hour or so I remained by the fire and watched other sisters go. We ended up having extra time, so I decided to go a second time. The second time was much more enjoyable as you already knew what to expect. Even though the weather was cold and rainy, everyone made the most out this half of the day. Everyone in our group went at least once, and some needed much more encouragement than others to not only climb up to the platform, but also to slide off and just let yourself enjoy the ride.

Once we were done with zip lining, we then went and grabbed lunch. While eating we would compare with the other group how there event was. Once we were all done eating we then put all our layers back on and braved the cold and rain, as it was now raining harder as it had been before. Now it was time for the groups to switch, so my group was headed to team challenge. At team challenge we were split in half and separated from the other half of our group. Throughout our time at team challenge we worked on a variety of obstacles that required us to communicate with one another and trust in each other. During one of the activities, half of us needed to keep our eye closed and cross sides on this wooden platform we were one. Being one of the individuals whos eyes need to be closed, I will definitely say I put all my trust in the sisters that could see because I knew they wouldn't let me walk off the platform. By the end of team challenge we were all soaked, but we all learned so much.

We returned back to the conference center and talked about our experiences with the sisters who had been in the zip lining group. To end the day we had a campfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. As we were all leaving the retreat to return back to Ada, there was a lot of discussion about what we learned about sisters who were in our group and also what we learned about ourselves. I personally enjoyed the experience, even with the incorporative weather and hope we are able to do something like that next year.