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I remember my first day of class when my professor told us he was going to take us to Holden Village for J-term. I was so excited because we were going to a new state, but I was also scared because my professor told us we wouldn’t have any [internet] connection at Holden since it’s very high in the mountains.
After a two-day trip across the state of Washington, we got to Holden and I couldn’t feel more welcome. Everyone was outside waiting to welcome us to this amazing community. When I took my step down from the bus it felt like home. This J-term was about vocation and communion. In class we talked about here at Holden, communion wasn’t only on Sunday, communion was every meal because we were sharing a meal in community.
Obviously, there were barriers, since you don’t have any cell service you can only email from the library. At the beginning it was hard, but when I began to get to know people, I started enjoying this beautiful place. I am glad I couldn’t use my phone because everyone was open to speaking with new people and meeting them. We revisited our childhoods, seeing every single person in the Village playing table games, skiing, and doing puzzles. That is something I always hated but now I enjoy it because it made me get closer to more people. Before our stop to Holden, I didn’t talk much to my classmates–only to one of them. In Holden we came from going skiing together, to having sleepovers, to even singing together in the living room. We knew we weren’t good singers, but Holden gave us a closer relationship that made us comfortable with each other; I even asked my professor for advice on how to declare to my crush.
Holden gave us a community, Holden gave us a family. Holden is a community that gets you closer to God, to yourself and to the people; because you don’t have distractions from the “outside world” you focus on what is happening around you not in the future. I still remember asking my professor and friends “what day is it today?” because time was going by fast.
Originally from Castellon, Spain, Ruben is a Junior at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is studying international business and management.
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