Last weekend, last Friday to be exact, my department held a 2 days 1 night family day retreat at Beringgis Beach Resort. It wasn’t a 5-star beach resort. Still it was an affordable and cozy resort though. Personally, for me and also most of my colleagues, it was one of the most anticipated event in 2009. Almost everyone was pretty hyped about it and so looking forward for the day.
Before I write on about it, the last time my department went for a family day retreat was a couple years ago which was in 2007 and it was also held at the same venue. I think it was the most fun and memorable event in 2007. I enjoyed every moment, enjoyed everyone’s company and I couldn’t recall anything un-fun happened during that particular family day retreat.
Fast forward two years later… If I could sum up the recent family day retreat in one word, it’d be ‘OKAY’. Yup, it was simply okay at its best. Fun? I’m not sure. It definitely falls completely flat compared to the previous one though. It wasn’t as fun as I imagined it would be. Why? Honestly, I felt somewhat left out during the seemingly long 2 days and 1 night event. It made me realized that a lot of things could happen within a couple of years. Within two years: people got engaged, people got married, people got pregnant, people have kids, people with kids have more kids, people’s life changed-so basically, people moved on. And I-well, didn’t. Could you believe that over the 2 days course, I actually felt lonelier mingling within the family-oriented crowd than I was sitting alone at home watching TV? There were so many people I could easily strike up a chat with and yet I felt so disconnected. I had a harder time understanding and catching up with these people than communicating silently with my cats. How did that happened?
Maybe-just maybe, in unintended or indirect ways, these then-single-now-parent people I used to know and enjoy being around with-made me realized how pathetically single I was/am. And I find it pretty un-amusing when every tiny thing was about whose child did it the best or the cutest…
Anyway, not all is bad. I did enjoyed myself at the resort. I enjoyed sinking myself inside the swimming pool-which gave me more than enough time for some soul-searching so I got a brilliant idea! I should sign up for swimming classes!
This was the event that you told me about; the one you packed your stuff in a big luggage with trolley? LOL!