On the first morning of my Kairos retreat, my classmates and I groggily loaded onto buses unsure of what to expect. Some of us were excited, some nervous, others unconvinced that these three days would mean anything at all. However, we all left changed in ways we could have never expected on that first morning.
I was surrounded by people who I had gone to school with for years - some of my best friends and some who I hardly knew anything about. After those three days, I left feeling closer to the people whose names I'd barley known than some of the friends I knew my entire life. Kairos changed my perception of what it means to know someone.
We often define people by what they do rather than who they are. Before kairos, I saw the girl on the cheerleading team as a cheerleader. I knew the starting point guard as the basketball star. When they opened up and shared their stories, I understood them. I empathized with them. I shared things with the people I passed in the hallways and wordlessly sat next to in class that I’d never told anyone. It was in those rare, raw moments of honesty that we realized we’re all much more alike than we thought. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has a battle to fight.
Kairos offered a three day break from the never-ending bustle of high school life. High school is a time of preparation. Whether it's studying for and taking the ACT or SAT to get into college, taking AP classes for college credits, or working jobs or internships for money down the road - your focus is on the future. It took Kairos to physically remove me from society and place me in the middle of the woods, nowhere near any sign of civilization, to force me to take a step back and realize where I was really “at" in my life.
I learned that despite all that is to come and prepare for, nothing should distract me from the person that I am in the present day. That despite all of the controllable and uncontrollable factors that are to come down the road, the one thing that I can always control is how I am each and every day - with my attitude, kindness, and care for others. If you spend all of your time looking to the future, you’ll never remember to actually live in the moment, or live at all for that matter.
Life is short, far too short to not appreciate the people around you or what you have. Sitting down in small groups and listening to all of the unbelievably tough things that my peers have gone through changed my perspective. I was blinded by my own problems, never stopping to know about what someone else may be going through.
Kairos opened my eyes to the trials that we all have to face, and how I could make those trials even the slightest bit less severe on the people around me by just a warm smile or kind word. Sitting down and talking to someone facing a tough situation and showing them that you’re there for them can make the world of difference in their life, while you might only be sacrificing five minutes of your time. Kairos taught me what it really means to be there for someone.
No combination of words can truly convey how exactly Kairos changed my life. What I underwent in those cabins in the woods for those three days is something all my own. I hope at some point in your life, you experience something that you don’t have words for.
"If you’ve been there, no explanation is necessary. If you haven’t, none is adequate."
