Gülhan’s Reflection on the GLLS Retreat 2023 in Ağva!
As the first GLLS event of the Fall 2023 period, we attended a GLLS retreat program. This retreat, where we discovered our past, present, and future us, was unforgettable with both individual and group activities.
Retreat helped me to listen to my inner self and hear its thoughts while creating a road map from the past to the future, in today’s world where everything in daily life happens quickly and we do not have time to slow down and be alone with our own inner voice. We accumulated beautiful memories at this retreat, where we fully enjoyed nature and became aware of ourselves and the events around us through different activities. Unlike my ordinary days, where I had to leave myself in the arms of daily worries and constantly occupy my mind with something, I had a three-day retreat that was very enjoyable for me and completely out of my routine. The most challenging part for me, who was used to the movement and crowds of the metropolis and thought that this was how I felt alive, was that I would be away from my daily routines for three days. However, on the contrary, it was an experience where I lost track of time and did not want it to end.
During the dialogue walk on the first day, in which we listened to the other person for twenty-five minutes and talked while the other person listened to us unresponsively for twenty-five minutes, I realized how much the distractions around me affected me and how much effort it took to be a good listener. While on the first day, I was conveying my present to the other person during the dialogue walk, on the second day we went to the past and then to the future in a much more artistic way :). While creating my individual journey with ropes, I had the chance to back-check the factors and milestones that make me who I am. Moreover, while designing my future self, I listed in my mind the steps I need to take today to reach that “future me”. Listening to my friends’ experiences and future plans on the same day reminded me once again how valuable a group I was a part of was. Everyone’s experiences and expectations from life were so different that I realized the values we put forward as individuals and the great things we can do when we come together as a group. In addition to all this, we experienced the efficiency of working as a team with a brainstorming effort to redesign GLLS, which emphasizes that we are not just participants in GLLS, but a part of it.
I thought the most challenging part of all these activities for me would be designing things. In general, I did not consider myself competent in jobs that required painting and handcrafting, but I realized that I could create very satisfactory products when I put these prejudices aside and focused on my current job.
After this retreat, I realized that I was giving too much importance to repetitive tasks in daily life and that it would be more enjoyable to improve on a subject by focusing not only on its concrete aspects but also on its abstract aspects. The positive energy that I shared with others in my community and feeling valued was incredible. What I needed to fully realize my potential was the experiences I would have at this retreat.
