Attending an overnight retreat is sometimes just what you need to remind yourself of who you are, what you have, and most important, WHO you have by your side through all that you may be experiencing. That is just what I realized this weekend at the 2017 OMA Retreat. But the most important thing I realized was the principle of letting go.
Fairly late on the Friday night, all fifty of us multicultural, under-represented students were gathered around the fire. As cliche as it may sound, the activity was all about writing things on post-it notes and throwing it into the fire. As I was handed the stack of post-it notes, I thought of just about 100 things I could throw into that fire. Typical things like stress or lack of self-confidence, but also some more deeper things. I could have easily decided to only throw those superficial things away, but I knew in order to break out of the chains I have been made to stay in for years I had to let it all go for that moment.
It was then that the list started forming on my many different notes. I threw so many things into that fire. My mother, my father, siblings, abuse, hatred, self-harming, depression, self-hatred, and so many more. Standing next to my roommate on my one side and my newly found friend on the other, something came over me. It was as if God had come in that moment to hug me and give me that strength I had longed for in that exact moment. Though it really wasn’t the solution for any of those issues, throwing them in the fire helped me to realize that it is the letting go part of those issues that grants true freedom. And man, I can’t wait until that freedom is granted.