Ever since I started going to St. Seraphim Camp, I desperately waited until I turned 16 to go to St. Herman's Conference. I had heard countless stories from my counselors of all the adventures they had in a new city each year and wanted to experience it too. Only getting to see my all my best friends together once a year was heartbreaking, I wanted to see them way more often.

In 2015, I finally turned 16 and headed to Albany for my first year in the same exact place we were at this year. From then on, I got the chance to reconnect with fellow campers, new people who are syezd veterans from all over the country and spend a week surrounded by faith and friends. I've gone every year since, and now I can say that this conference changed my life for the better. Through it, I gained so many incredible memories in different cities every year: from running around the National Mall in the capital, to laughing as we all fell during ice skating in the Palisades Mall and grabbing an empty ballroom in the hotel for a group of 20 people to play games until curfew time, laughing so hard we cried.

Every year brings new people and a new location, with that, comes lessons learned with each one. This is one of the only times of the year where I get to be surrounded by only Orthodox Christians for the entirety of the week, living together, attending church, learning about our faith, exploring new places, bonding and making lifelong friendships in the process. Especially in college, it's easy to get sucked into the craziness of school and student life as it takes over, push the church to the side and lose yourself in a society that tends to stray from God, making you lose sight of what's really important.

We get so caught up in academics, work, extracurriculars and stress that we start feeling lost, trying to find what path to take in life. But coming to syezd means forgetting about all those problems for those several days and hitting the reset button. Focusing on the healing of our souls, what makes us truly happy, and strengthening friendships with people from different countries and states.

All the discussions, lectures and priests have taught me something important in the talks we've had. I've learned to filter through the madness of the world, see past the stress and take a minute to breathe and relax upon arriving after a stressful semester. Each week has changed me for the better, made me grateful for all that I've been given and see the beauties in life. I wouldn't trade these experiences for the world and getting to spend it with the best friends I grew up with only makes it ten times better. There is no greater blessing than having such a fun loving, crazy and supportive community like this one to build relationships with throughout the years.

These are the types of people I want to surround myself with in life, who I strive to be and remembering one thing: "Live your life in search of God and God will not abandon you." There is mercy and forgiveness and we dig deep inside ourselves to be the best image of Christ we can be. These lessons are what have made me feel like a new person every time I leave syezd.

St. Herman's Conference gave me some of the best days of the year: the moments where we laugh until our stomachs hurt, cry happy tears and tackle our best friend at the airport, fly from one end of the country to other for a week that flies by and is over before we know it. If I could relive the past 4 years of it, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I've become stronger, found my place in this scary world when I was lost, regained my faith after hard times and attended some of the most beautiful church services I've ever seen. I live for the feeling of the choir's mesmerizing voices and the smell of incense that make my soul soar with its beauty, sitting on the banks of the Potomac River to catch up on my roommates' lives and the happiness I leave with on every last day, knowing that as long as I have camp and syezd, I can get through anything.

If you get the chance to go to the conference, please go. I promise it is worth the countless all-nighters, early morning wake-up calls, late night pool games and intense jeopardy competitions with people you just met 4 days ago but are now a super tight-knit group. I said it in the summer, and I'll say it again: it only takes a week to change your life. You won't realize how much of an impact it'll have until you see it for yourself.

So, start now.