Reaching New Heights: The Briarwood School Senior Class Retreat

Jake Samuels and Daniel Elliott bond on the Big Swing. (Photo: Addison Hutchings)

In November, the Briarwood senior class went to Camp Allen to celebrate the fact that we will soon be embarking on our next step in life, college.

The retreat was an event we will remember for the rest of our lives. We had to rely on one another to conquer our biggest fears in the “log test.” In this activity, each senior wrote down something that we wanted to overcome and placed that note on the base of the log. Then we put our faith in one another to lift us up over the log - and over that fear.

However, that was nothing compared to the heights we went to when swinging on a giant swing, one of our favorite activities. We partnered up, hooked on harnesses, and waited to scream our heads off as our friends on the ground pulled the rope higher and higher. 

As night fell, we lazily sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows. The part of the evening that really hit home for us was reading letters from our parents telling of their feelings about our leaving home.

I think it’s safe to say that we faced the reality that our senior year was halfway done, and it would soon be the day we take our tassels and flip them to the other side as we part our separate ways.