Okay, I got back from my chruch summer retreat up at Sonoma State University.
It was a terrible rush hour drive. =( Even the overhang electronic signs that tell you how much time it should be before you reach certain destination was off by half an hour.
I was eating plums while I was driving. Melissa had picked some while waiting for me to come by to give her a lift. I was pretty lucky, I got the sweet ones.
So it is a really pretty campus up there. However the food there is terrible. They serve a lot of vegan food, which made me sad. I didn’t know what BBQ Wheat Chicken was, but it looked just like BBQ Chicken. However when you started eating it, it tasted just like Hard Tofu. =(. My friends and I were sad, because we really thought it was meat. Then for breakfast they served us vegan sausages, which tasted really weird too. I’m not sure why they even make vegan food that looks like the meat replica, because it tasted bad. =(
The theme of this year was “Drive”, (Why we do what we do), and it was a lot about challenging us to recognize what we prioritize as our life, and thinking about what drives is us. Understanding that we all fail, and seeing how you can show Christ in your life during times of failure. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)
The pastor who was speaking had some nice quotes that I remember “Impress w/ success, impact w/ failure”
I forgot to talk about the church retreat pastor. His name was Pat, and the most interesting part about him was that when I was in middle school. He became the youth pastor at CCS (Chinese Christian School), so I knew him from the youth group. It was so funny, because I said “hey, do you remember that one time in youth group (15 years ago), hahahaha, he said ‘lets not go there’.”. However I should say that he has made a lot of impact on my life. I’ve randomly met him around Castro Valley when I do stuff. It is really cool when that happens.
I just thought the above was interesting.
Also during the retreat I actually got really mad right after a basketball game. It was the 4th game, and I was playing my heart out (it was mostly just adrenaline for that last game), and I took what someone said to me to heart (pretty sharp comments he had). It pissed me off so much, that I started to cry after the game. It was just about the way I was playing where they said “stop taking a charge”, when the one guy had told me earlier to stop being physical on defense and bumping into him”. So I didn’t really guard him as much, but just found a spot and stood there (because I didn’t want to bump him, let him bump me if that is what he meant). Then he decides to drive in, and can’t get around me (he can see me for a good 10 feet) and I think he slightly cramps up when he runs over me. That was why he got mad and started saying “stop taking a charge”. This really made me angry, because they were calling fouls on me for defending him, and when I wasn’t even defending him but just standing in a spot.
I reached the crying part of my anger really fast, walked I didn’t throw a tantrum on the court, or showed that I was angry until after the game. As I was leaving by myself, I was throwing my badge holder in a sign of disgust. Then the guy pissed me off, wanted to talk it out with me. So we talked it out, and it is all good now because he goes “I did talk pretty harshly, because I was mad, and I guess everyone thinks you are really tough skinned but there are still ways to get to you.”
That was most of the retreat. It was really good, and I will now try to find more time to mentor my mentee.
