Freshmen Get A Fresh Look On Respect
Ellie Blake
Co-Editor-In-Chief
A day off from school can mean a lot of different things.
It can mean a break from the overwhelming school week.
It could mean taking a break from pretending to be someone you're not.
It could also mean making a change for the better.
Waverly High School’s freshmen class put a hold on regular classswork to participate in the Youth Frontier’s Respect Retreat.
The freshmen class filed into the gym Thursday morning accompanied by a few volunteer teachers. As they scooted into the room, dozens of upperclassmen from NHS cheered them on as their day began.
Once inside the gym and ready to go, the students began to dance and sing. Students also participated in a creative shoe contest, a burping contest and a scream contest.
Games were played in between contests and activities.
“My favorite part of the retreat was probably the fun games we played, except when I got pushed down during ‘Caught In The Middle’,” freshman Parker Nagengast laughed.
After countless minutes of dancing, singing and laughing, the students settled down to discuss how the directors hoped the day would play out.
“We want you to be real. Be yourself and be who you really are. Take off the mask or whatever you want to think of,” the Youth Frontier director, who simply went by Sam, said.
These retreats are set up by the Youth Frontiers, a group of spontaneous individuals that want to lead students in the right direction. Helping over 1.3 million students, their impact is hoped to be widely spread by the students they interact with.
Youth Frontier directors use their inner strengths to strive for student improvement.
“I’m a musician. I’ve always wanted to inspire people using music the way music inspired me,” Youth Frontier director Debra said. “It’s the perfect way to use my talent to do something good.”
Some of the directors were inspired to join by participating in a retreat themselves.
“I was in a respect retreat when I was in ninth grade. I loved it, and I was like, ‘I have to do this, because I love telling stories and being weird’,” Sam said.
During the sit-down talk about self confidence and respecting yourself, Sam referenced his high school days and about how no matter how well he did at school or sports, he focused on the bad things about it.
“For some of us, we step in front of the mirror and can only see the problems. When you see yourself, what do you say?” Sam questioned.
The day meant many different things for the freshmen. For some, it was a day to find out how to respect others. For others, it was time to express how it feels to be disrespected.
At the end of the retreat, a microphone and a candle was laid in the center of the nervous group of freshmen. This was a time for the students to speak on how they are going to respect themselves, others or both. It was a time for them to be themselves and express how they felt to their whole class.
Despite nervous feelings, many students spoke their ways of respecting themselves and others.
“If I don’t stand up for myself, I don’t think I could stand up for other people,” Gina Beckman said. “I’m going to tell myself that I’m not useless and talk to people about who I am.”
Many freshmen believed that respect was not an apparent issue going into the retreat.
“I feel like we have a fairly respectful high school,” Nagengast said. “I think it helped our classmates respect themselves more than it will help them respect others.”
NHS junior leaders found meaning during the day as well.
“I enjoy this day because it's very fun to teach the freshmen about respect and how we can respect each other like one big family,” junior Seth Janssen said.
The end of the retreat was spent playing basketball, volleyball, talking with friends and reaching out to peers that students wouldn’t normally talk to.
As the kids filed out of the gym after their fun day, the Youth Frontiers group desired that the kids took their message away with them into the hallways of WHS.
“My hope is that at the end of the day, when they commit to something on their card, they take it seriously. That goal that they set for themselves can really change their world and everyone else’s world,” Debra said.
