Conviviencia con Alumnos del Colegio

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Today I went to a mini-retreat, a day of discernment, with 56 colegio (middle school grades, but ages 14-20) kids as well as some young leaders of the Center, meaning they graduated and now work there or help out.

56! I couldn’t believe it! This was an optional day of discernment - and it’s their only free day a week (because everyone works on Saturday)!

One thing that struck me during the ice breaker was that one of the basic questions you ask people here in colegio is “what is your profession?” During their first year of colegio (SEVENTH GRADE), they try out all the different professions and then by the middle of the year or something they have to choose what profession they like and want to develop during the rest of their time. And what they choose is most likely what they will do for the rest of their life. (I don’t know if that’s 100% true, but it seems like that.)

That still blows my mind because if they asked me what my profession is, I say teacher for now, but I’m not sure if this is what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life. It’s really hard to explain that my major in college (Psychology and Theology) is not my profession. Whenever I say my majors here, everyone automatically responds, “So you’re a psychologist?” So then I have to explain the US university system and how a LOT of people can major in one thing and do a completely different job after. It’s interesting because these people, from the poor kids to the doctor of the Center, have no concept of studying something but then not concretely applying it in your job. How lucky was I to have these 4 years of my life to just study whatever I wanted and enjoy my life! This is a foreign concept to the people of Ecuador. They know from seventh grade what skill they are going to focus on and perfect so that they will be able to succeed in the workforce here.

The types of questions that these middle school kids (but like I said, most of them are older, like 15 and up) were asking about the speakers’ spiritual lives also blew me away. I was not thinking about anything like that, even on my retreats in high school with youth group. They wanted to know about the speakers’ prayer lives and about the religious life and vocation in general. These kids are getting raised well in the Center, which is really cool to see.

Overall, going on a retreat was a really amazing experience, and I am excited to work with the religion teachers to help plan the next one (hopefully in the spring)!

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