St. Margaret’s Annual FNE Retreat (First Ever Outing As Goshawks) Day 2

 St. Margaret’s Annual FNE Retreat (First Ever Outing As Goshawks) Day 2

February 8, 2025

Written by Alexander Jairam

Dear Reader,

The second day of our first outing-or anything in fact- together as a patrol was the FNE Annual Retreat 2025 at St. Margaret’s on February 9, 2025. We started a bit early I guess and woke up at around 0630. Once everyone was ready, Gavin lead derusting. Unfortunately, I was unable to do 15 pushups. This I would say is sad. After derusting, we did our first patrol council to discuss the patrol staff’s name, the patrol saint, action posts, and the patrol motto. After some discussion we decided that the staff would be named “Stormwind,” and the patrol said was undecided that council, but later became st. Eustachius, patron saint of hunters, fire prevention, firefighters, and challenging situations. The action posts are written down somewhere else in this book, and the motto is “Discipline and virtue will bring you to new heights.” After the council, we ate breakfast. Breakfast was eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. Once breakfast was done and we had cleaned up everything, we started preparing for a talk. Although it was a talk, we had to participate in talking too. Each patrol was assigned one of these four virtues; magnificence, magneminity, perseverance, and patience. We then discussed perseverance-as it was our assigned virtue-and how it related to Keys of the Kingdom, the Pieta, and FNE. Each patrol would have a person talk about one thing. For example, Joseph talked about perseverance in Keys of the Kingdom even though he missed half the movie going to adoration. Joshie talked about perseverance in FNE and I talked about perseverance related to the Pieta. But right before I went up to talk, Bobcat announced that we all do 15 pushups to get our blood flowing. If you remember from earlier, I was unable to do 15 pushups in derusting, how was I going to do 15 pushups now? Luckily, I chose to do the pushups in front of everyone and failed miserably. Joseph came and helped me and I was finally able to talk. After the talks, we held another patrol council and then we had free time until lunch. Lunch was sandwiches with Himalayan Salt chips. The previous day, I had seen the chips in the kitchen and immediately knew what was for lunch. After lunch, the troop played Grab the Necker, in patrol teams. No one was getting out so the border for the game started shrinking. Goshawks were obliterated off the face of the Earth. During that same game, somehow, Joseph ended up headbutting Martin and had a small timeout. He got back in the game and then Goshawks were obliterated. Once the troop played a round, it became PCs and APCs versus everyone else. Unfortunately, I was the first person to get eliminated which allowed me to watch the game from the side. In the chaos Joseph was pushed and/or fell on the ground and the back of his head banged on the ground. At the moment, Joseph didn’t realize he had gotten a minor concussion and since every other PC or APC was out already, he had to 1v1 all the rest of the explorers. (I was the only not PC or APC who was eliminated). They formed a circle around him and one by one attacked him. Joseph was able to eliminate Peter Kelly and Cole before Elk had to stop the game because there was a wedding and we didn’t want to interrupt it. After Grab the Necker, we had some free time and Elk figured out that Joseph got a minor concussion. If he didn’t feel better in 10 minutes, he would be sent home. After free time, Elk gave a little talk about Christian denominations. He then announced that we should all spend 15 minutes alone to meditate and just to be alone. During this time, I started writing yesterday’s log. When everyone’s 15 minutes was up, everyone had free time until mass at 6pm. After mass we ate dinner which was hamburgers. When the hamburgers ran short, the wayfarers drove the store, bought more burger ingredients, came back, and cooked more food. While we were waiting for more burgers, we stood around a campfire and talked about things. When more burgers arrived, we ate around the fire. Before we went to bed, we said the rosary. After the rosary, we went to sleep. I am writing this at 4:31pm on February 11, 2025. The above events took place on February 8,2025.

End of Log

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