On Discovery Weekend

NOTE: Some spoilers here for those who haven't attended yet.

I know this post is kinda late, considering it's already thursday and the Discovery Weekend was (obviously) last weekend. Been a little busy with work lately, plus add to that, my laptop seemed to be infected with a spyware/virus and it kept rebooting everytime I tried to connect to the internet. Haaay... you'd think the stress of the wedding preps is not enough, hehehe.

Ok, so going back to friday last week... Flashback!

As I mentioned before, we took the day off. Finished all errands for the day. Paid the bills. Went to the bank to deposit mandatory savings for the wedding. Had the car washed. Ate halo-halo at Chowking. Hehehe, so the last one is not an errand. It has become a regular thing for us though since it has been so hot the past few weeks and Leo gets "bugnot" so easily because of the heat. Anyweyz... we arrived at OMI at around 6:30pm. There were already a lot of couples there ahead of us. Didn't expect to see so many! I believe there were 26 couples all in all. We did the registration thing, got our keys to the rooms and deposited our bags. Soon enough, dinner started. Got to talk to some w@wies who were also there. Then session started. It was a light evening. Lots of laughter.

Highlight of the evening? We had this exercise on empathy, and after reflection, the chaplain asked who among us was able to empathize. The girl he called on (gosh, hope she doesn't get offended if she reads this!) said she wasn't actually able to empathize since it was so late and she couldn't think anymore. She then proceeded to tell the chaplain that, even though we were not allowed watches in the sessions, she knew that it was already 11pm and that everybody was tired. It was a really funny scene, the way she delivered it -- all honesty and frankness. The class laughed, but I guess a lot of them were also feeling sleepy and tired at that point. Anyway, that added to the lightness of mood of the evening.

Saturday was a day of sessions. Presentation, Reflection, then Dialogues. That was the rythm of the sessions. A lot of singing too. I must say, I found the sessions informative and helpful. There were things that Leo and I got to talk about that we usually just took for granted or assumed about each other. It was also nice being there with each other without having to think of anything else except us. No work. No family influence. No friends or barkada (atleast the old ones). Just us. Well, technically there were also other couples. But during dialogues, it was just you and your partner, so that's cool. And anyway, everyone seemed to have this mutual goal of making each of our relationships stronger in preparation for marriage, and there's a feeling of love everywhere... nax! Hehehe. Highlight of the evening was the reconcilation in the evening. Made me feel really closer to Leo then. Felt cleansed, happy, and more ready for our marriage. Felt lighter somehow.

Sunday was almost the same as Saturday, except shorter. More sessions. Some sharing was done. Some cleansing tears for some. Then the mass and graduation. I really liked the homily of the priest. Leo and I are even considering if he can do the ceremony for our wedding.

All in all, I highly recommend the DW for soon-to-wed couples. I especially recommend it for those who haven't been together long and hasn't really talked and planned much about their life after the wedding. But even long-term couples like us will definitely benefit from it. I know we have. Marriage is not always a bed of roses afterall, and any help we can get in making ours stronger is always welcome. That's commitment. And that's love.