Kairotic Leadership Anonymous

"Live the Fourth!" The Fourth of July you might ask? Not quite. I mean the Fourth day of the Kairos Retreat, when we made resolutions and the Kairos spirit was at its peak. Kairos means a spiritual time-a time that can't be measured in minutes or hours. On this retreat, my senior class devoted four days to self-exploration in the soft hills of Toccoa, GA. As a student leader, I lived Kairos twice, once in a condensed version on the leaders' retreat, and again when I led my own table group through the experience.

Many people have asked me what the Kairos secret is, and while there are tangible secrets, those aren't what "make" the retreat. The real secret is that after only a few hours at the leaders' retreat, I talked openly about topics I wouldn't normally share: my fears and goals, my sister Ali's illness as a baby, and my love and respect for my boyfriend. Perhaps that wouldn't sound strange with close friends, but the other student leaders weren't people I knew well. Sure, I saw them in the halls and we occasionally chatted, yet while they had classes together and hung out outside of school, I was an outsider. But once we started talking, the Kairos spirit prevailed and...