Edif John Deal was always a good kid, but when eighth grade came around and the many physical and emotional changes a young person goes through took place, he felt like nothing resonated with him anymore. The music he used to like, the people he used to hang around, his fashion sense even changed. His parents became last priority and all he ever wanted to do was be alone. He felt truly lonely in a great big world with people he felt would never understand what he was going through; Edif was merely looking for his “life purpose,” but what thirteen year old does not ponder such a thought?

               It was a warm and fairly bright summer afternoon when Edif’s mother decided that the disconnection she felt from her son was truly enough. She knew what he was going through, but as a mother to a child, teenagers never believe their parents are actually human beings, who were in fact once young. Becoming so fed-up with Edif and his small ways of pushing her away, Edif’s mom decided to take a vacation, but not any vacation; this was a spiritual kind of trip, perhaps, otherwise, referred to as a retreat. Dear Edif’s mother wanted to take off to a place called Avalon’s Oasis for a Spiritual Awakening.

               As you could imagine, Edif was completely against such an idea, for going on vacation with your mother at the age of thirteen is what you would refer to as, “unhip.” He fought and fought the situation, but his mother would not give in. She made him go despite his unwillingness to make peace and comply with such an irrational feeling of not wanting to go. To the airport they went, and off from Vegas to Oregon they went.

               Once Edif arrived to Avalon’s, reality made its mark. Edif knew he couldn’t back out now, he was here and he had to become one with his surroundings. He realized how much this retreat could actually help him. As he walked through the glass doors, into something far more beautiful than anything his eyes have ever met, he felt peace; it was like a royal palace, completely made out of glass windows with its surroundings being the ocean. Rooms where lined up like flocks of birds, one after another, but each room was sound proof, and just as luxurious and peaceful as the vestibule of Avalon’s.  In more descriptive terms, Avalon’s could be compared to a monastery. People filed up in rows upon rows, laying their mats down to participate in meditation and to listen to inspirational speeches.