Truthfully, I had no expectations going into the Mentor/Mentee Retreat whatsoever. I was fully confident since I already had a strong relationship with my mentor going into it. Also, my extraverted and woo like personality makes it very easy for me to make friends and connections to knew people. I was actually very excited to go on the retreat actually , to meet and get to know the people in my cohort more (since I don’t get to live with them…) and in the cohort above me. The only time I truly get to see the other people in my cohort is during class or randomly around campus.

My mentor, Aaron Jay Frens, but most of you beautiful people most likely know him as AJ, were very enthused to get away from campus for a weekend and spend some quality time together, even though we were already very close. Funny story, actually, when we arrived to Eagle Village I started crying when I was told we had to walk to our cabins because that week was a very hard training week and my legs were so dead that I didn’t think I was going to make it there. Don’t worry, I was able to get over myself after AJ
laughed at me. For the rest of the weekend, we were granted free

access to meet and connect with new people in many different ways, whether it was at meals, during leadership building activities, free-time, the campfire, or the high-ropes course. Again, since AJ and I don’t have the opportunity to live with our cohorts, this time that we get to spend with the others is very special to us. Honestly though, on a real note, I’d be willing to argue that AJ and I are the closest Mentee/Mentor match up out of anyone in LAS.

This trip made me actually feel connected to more people within the group because before it I had only known about five or six people. Leaving this trip, I felt confident enough to come back to campus and actually say hi to these people and converse with them when I saw them around campus or in class. Even though AJ and I were already very close before the Retreat but it was pretty cool because we got to have some cool one-on-one talks where we don’t get to as much on campus because we are with our other teammates a good portion of the time as well. But outside of AJ I was also very grateful to go because I was able to get to know the others in my cohort.