I think that our first retreat was a success! I am leaving feeling much more connected with the community and a lot more excited to be part of What’s The Story.

1. Our first goal was feel more inspired and connected with the What’s The Story community. When I first showed up I still didn’t know a lot of people’s names and wasn’t very comfortable with them. As soon as we played the lava game I immediately started to feel comfortable and I got a lot more excited for the weekend ahead of me. These bonding games are very important for us not only because we can get to know each other better, but we also learn important aspects of being on a team. After we finish the game I like reflecting on what went well and what didn’t, then getting another chance to do better. After we had finished the games and started working I felt a lot more comfortable with the community, and I was ready to start looking for a topic. By the end of the night I had eaten some very delicious food and never wanted the day to be over. A few people started to play cards and we were talking and joking around as if we had known each other forever. I am amazed at how fast we all bonded and I’m very excited to continue working with my team.
2. Our second goal is to be able to describe in detail the topic and team we’ve committed to. The team that I’ve committed to for the next four weeks is following impacts of economic inequality. I think that this is the perfect team for me because I feel like I have a lot to give and learn about the topic. We have not yet decided on a main topic because we need to do more research, but our subtopics are college, poverty, race, incarceration,drugs, and money inequality at school. In the next four weeks we are going to be able to pick a subtopic or choose something that we haven’t thought of yet.
3. Our third goal is to begin enacting our social actions team’s story chasing plan. We are going to be enacting our team’s story chasing plan by starting interviews right away. We don’t want to waste any time and if we don’t have someone to interview, we are doing all the research we can!