The Senior Pilgrimage was last weekend, September 13-14. The senior class walked 12 long miles, but finished closer and stronger.
Lead walker Dylan McGrain was thrilled with how the pilgrimage turned out with all the work the leaders put into it.
“[The leaders] did a fantastic job. Going back to last spring, everybody was super into it, committed, and determined to make it a really good experience,” he said.
Campus Ministry Director Mr. Don Clarke agrees, believing this pilgrimage went so well because of the senior leaders.
“The pilgrimage this year was phenomenal. For me, so much of that relies on the leaders, and this year the leaders really took that to heart, and did a phenomenal job in their talks and skits,” Mr. Clarke said.
During the walk, the senior class grew closer with each other.
“There was a lot of time and opportunities to connect with a lot of people. I talked to people from my encounter small group, to some of my friends that I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to yet this year, and to everybody that I already knew, and that was really fun,” McGrain said.
The leaders and adults on the pilgrimage stressed for the students to talk to each other and bond, hoping to bring the seniors together.
“I would say that the seniors took to heart to become a better community in the time that we had,” Mr. Clarke said.
The Mass at the end of the pilgrimage was also very special for all the seniors.
“My favorite part of the pilgrimage was the Mass. The singing was so good, it was a really nice church, and having the whole class there was amazing,” senior Eli Parelius said.
The seniors, by walking together, were able to get through the hard parts together.
“The four mile stretch was the hardest part. We kept moving forward, though, and didn’t stop,” Parelius said.
While the four mile stretch was long and hot, the shortest stretch was a struggle for other seniors.
“I think the hardest part of the walk for me was actually the silent part, because that was the part that felt the longest for me. Everyone did a really good job keeping quiet, which is a hard thing to do for 270 kids. It was only 0.7 miles, but it felt by far the longest because you couldn’t talk to anybody, couldn’t connect to anybody. The reason it felt so long and so hard was because there wasn’t anybody to help me, to talk to,” McGrain said.
