Family is more than blood relatives at Ursuline

By Isabel Cambias
Ursuline Academy

Family is not exclusively  our blood relatives. Each of us is created individually as a different thread and sewn together through what we experience. Thus, our family can extend beyond our nuclear family.

During the spring, my Ursuline Academy class of 2021 went on an overnight retreat to Camp Abbey. We juniors were brought closer together and molded into an extended family through  the fire of Christian love. 

“Love” is such a vulnerable topic for many students. The retreat team, composed of seniors, carefully created a nonjudgmental environment for us. They shared nothing but warm smiles and loving conversations. 

The seniors put in hours of work planning the retreat because they had experienced a similar retreat the year before, and they wanted us to share the same memorable experience.

The retreat team leaders, along with our teachers, shared from their own experience about how they had discovered love in their lives. They also offered stories about how a person can love herself as well as hundreds of different forms of love. 

They talked about the values in all forms of love, not just romantic love. 

The juniors were then broken into small groups and given time together to reflect on what impacted them the most about what the person had said. 

My small group bonded together immediately and felt the love of the Holy Spirit within us, reaching out to each of us and impacting the other. God brought us together for this retreat to show us the open-mindedness of others. 

My junior retreat gave me a stronger sense of understanding of all the people around me – and a recognition of what they may be facing without any of us even knowing about it. Hearing the retreat team girls share personal stories helped me see that they were just like me. They make mistakes, they aren’t perfect, and, like anyone else, they struggle sometimes with their faith. 

This retreat broke down the stubborn barriers we usually hide behind. My favorite parts of the retreat were the conversations  we shared in our small group  – which very quickly became a “friend” group.

We left the retreat more unified and closer than ever before. 

We can become so distracted by everything around us and forget about the people we see every day. Through our junior retreat, we became more aware of one another, and we now share a special bond  together and continue to share that love throughout our remaining school days at Ursuline and beyond.

Isabel Cambias is a junior at Ursuline Academy in New Orleans.