On Wednesday, April 10th, the Senior Class of 2024 embarked on their final retreat at Cardinal Newman High School. As the previous class had done, this year’s seniors were out and busy the whole day. The most exciting event to look forward to was the FAU Challenge Course. Most seniors had never been to a ropes course before, and many were unaware of the true nature of the upcoming activity.
Firstly, however, after the bell rang, seniors did not remain in their homeroom and instead headed over to Mary Immaculate for a short Mass. The priest was a visitor from a local trauma center, who gave a homily concerning none other than Steve Jobs. He first challenged the class with a quote: “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” The quote is idealistically fit for a coming of age for seniors at first. But the priest’s main point was that within Apple there are hundreds of smaller jobs that people do which allows Steve Jobs to love his job as CEO. These lesser known anonymous faces do not necessarily love their work, and that represents a major fact about life: not everything will go as planned. Here at Newman, as seniors about to head onto the next stage of life, life may not be as we expect. We will find ourselves working hard. Yet, we will be working hard to make the world a better place, and that is something worth fighting for.
After being given an insightful beginning to the day, we soon proceeded to the Skaff Hall for a quick breakfast: bagels, bananas, Chick-fil-A chicken minis. Up on the projector board, a slideshow showing pictures highlighted the difference between freshman looks and the “glow up” senior shots. Accompanied by cheering and laughing, the senior class then boarded three buses in and drove out to the Challenge Course.
The campus staff from FAU quickly got us started. They organized seniors into groups of around nine, and jumped right into the challenges of the course. Harnesses were strapped in, and soon scores of seniors climbed to overcome tightropes, floating wooden islands, wooden beams, a giant ladder and a 30-foot rock climbing wall. The course appeared daunting at first, with many expressing apprehension with regards to the safety of the cords or the altitude of the obstacles, but with grit and determination they pulled through. The victorious spirit of the day was best exemplified by the ringing of the bell on top of the rock wall, as planes took off in the background.
Overall, as seniors returned back to school, the retreat marked the first of the final weeks of school, filled with milestones, and memories.
