The wisdom retreat was the biggest waste of time.

Like many of my fellow seniors, I have been waiting for graduation since I started elementary school. I cannot wait to graduate, move to New York and go to college. So, when the day for the annual wisdom retreat rolled around, I struggled to decide to attend. In the end, I decided I should make the most of these last few weeks and attend, even though I am incredibly stressed with exam season.

I thought we would be treated like seniors, like we are leaving home in a few short months and headed off to college. Instead, the Youth Frontiers leaders treated us as little children, and led us through a series of teambuilding exercises that were much too uncomfortable.

The first few hours, I hoped it would get better and I would feel like I was getting something out of the day. However, before it was even lunchtime, I felt incredibly stressed about all of my exams and other projects I could work on instead of sitting in a very warm, poorly ventilated church.

Overall, the wisdom retreat was a childish event that could have been more relevant and significant in the fall, as we started senior year to encourage us to enjoy our time. If the retreat would have been during the first few weeks of school, the senior class might have benefitted from the team building exercises. No matter the timing, there should not be any money used to pay for this type of event.

Hosting this event with a month to graduation and at the beginning of exam season ended up making the event a massive waste of time. Some consideration should have been given to the fact that AP and IB exams were much more of a priority for seniors over team bonding exercises with people we’ve been waiting for four years to get away from.

The school should save some money and instead of diverting resources to Youth Frontiers, they could allocate the money to more needy areas of the school. The school could spend the money typically used for the wisdom retreat to lower the cost of the senior all night party, something the seniors might actually enjoy.