Packing up, Moving on.

After four weeks of living together in a retreat center, cooking for each other, teaching each other, hearing each others most important stories, and doing everything together, the students are starting to pack up. They leave tomorrow and are slowly pulling their stuff together- both physically and emotionally.

It is interesting to watch the kids deal with the reality sinking in. Some feel ready to leave, ready to have a break from communal living, others feel as though their summer ahead does not hold the same allure anymore- that they are leaving an amazing experience. Only a few realize this may be the only time in their life that they actually have an experience like this. I want to help them through their individual processes of letting go, of collecting what they have learned and bring it back to their lives, but I also realize it is a very individual process.

Tonight we had what we jokingly called "Sharefest 2007". My fellow fellow, a student, and I did a skit of all the different students and their cliche sayings tonight. Even I have to admit it was pretty darn funny. Students played guitar and sang, others did tricks, and a few of us did reading of favorite passages. It was really fun and really cute. Everyone that I have come to love here made me feel so proud of them.

I know I will remember so much of what has happened here, so I can't even imagine what it would be like to be students and to have been here for four times as long. This is by far the best educational experience I have ever seen or been apart of and I can only imagine what they are taking away from this.