Noël Académie is a religious camp for the french schools in my district. I went last year because it was at my school but this year it was at Sainte-Famille which is a school in Mississauga. Noël Académie is fun from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave, of course no ones ever wants to leave because they make so many new friends, also the most fun you'll ever have at Noël Académie is the day that the elders come because two students will be paired up with one elderly then we play a big game of bingo and talk to the elder and when it's time for dinner we go in the cafeteria and eat but when they're almost done their meal, the guess priest will start off the show with a little song himself. Last years' guess priest was father Robert Lebel he was pretty awesome but this year it was father Yvon Samson he was amazing because he used everyday situation to explain to us certain biblical meanings and such. Anyway, after the priest was finished, each school that attended had to put on a show for the elders to enjoy, whether it's a song, song and dance, or a little skit, it doesn't matter as long as you have fun, now my school which is Saint-Charles-Garnier, decided to do a skit because the previous year, we did a song and dance to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and that was a disaster. But this year while we practiced, our skit looked horrible and we thought for the longest time that it was going to be even worse then last year but when we got on stage and started acting out our Hillbilly Christmas, it turned out excellent and went by smoothly. When it's time to leave, we always do a reflexion on how the past couple of days has impacted us and of course people always think that it won't because it's just a camp but it really does. For me Noël Académie is an amazing experience and it opens up your heart to help others. When we have the chance to confess for something we've done, you get that heavy weight off your shoulders, and when we spend time with elders, we gain not only experience but we grow in knowledge because they teach us that no matter what you do in life, taking the time to reach out to someone, makes your heart healthier in a way that it grows of kindness. Of course I wish that I can go back to Noël Académie next year but unfortunately I'm graduating this year so I won't be able to but I hope that Noël Académie grows in the number of students that attend because even just from last year to this year it was incredible the amount of kids that wanted to enjoy the first weekend of December by attending Noël Académie!
