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Discovery Weekend is designed for all adoptees, 12-17 years old, who were adopted internationally and transracially. (Transracial adoption means placing a child who is of one race with adoptive parents of another race.) This special weekend is held each year at Camp Carter YMCA, which is located in Fort Worth, TX. Below is a list of some of the typical activities adoptees will have the opportunity to enjoy during the weekend:
We'll see you next year at Dillon International's Discovery Weekend!
The weekend started early in the morning, but
we were ready for over 60 teenage Korean adoptees to begin
descending upon the Dillon office.
Phones began ringing....papers flying...planes
arriving...luggage everywhere...with the excited teenage chatter
increasing as old friends were reunited and new acquaintances
made.
This would be a weekend strictly for adoptees, facilitated
by adoptees.
This was my first Discovery Weekend and I had
no idea what to expect.
I had already learned that the first weekend, which was
held in 1995, had had only five adoptees attending.
I marveled how much the weekend event had grown over the
past five years.
One of the first attendees shared with me how attending that
first Discovery Weekend had completely changed his life.
Until then he had never addressed his adoption story, his
being Korean, or his uniqueness.
Out of that first Discovery Weekend experience, he went on
to co-found a very influential adult adoptee group.
And so I was prepared for this to be a very powerful
weekend.
After arriving at the resort, we separated
into groups for discussions on racial identity, birth family,
the adoption process, peer pressure, dating and relationships.
Each group reminded me of my own childhood and the issues
that I had faced as I grew into adulthood.
As I listened to various teens, I became aware that the
issues they are confronting now seem more pressing than the
issues I had faced only five years before. However, the need to
"fit in" and the desire to be needed and accepted for who they
are hadn't changed.
I was reminded how the road to self-identity and
self-assurance has many twisting and winding curves, coupled
with questions about race, adoption, and heritage. The teens
were asking the same questions that I had once asked myself, and
I realized that the same hopes, fears, and doubts adoptees face
are timeless - unique in fashion but identical in pattern.
For many teen adoptees, this is perhaps one
of the most fragile, yet wonderful, times in their lives.
It is a time of discovery through questioning.
It is a time of clarity mixed with confusion and
apprehension. It is
a time to soar, reshape and redefine who they are, where they
are going and to reflect on where they have been.
The weekend proved to be as powerful as had been promised and a strong reminder of the special function that educational events such as Discovery Weekend provide for our teens to get together and share their experiences and grow from each other. As parents and facilitators of teen weekend retreats, remembering to keep an open door to adoptees' questions, fears, joys and everyday experiences is vital and important in maintaining healthy and strong relationships. Although they may not openly talk about the issues confronting them at this stage in their lives, it doesn't mean that teens are not thinking about them. Essentially, our teenagers just want to know that there will always be someone there to hear them, to ask them how their day was and to lend advice and support in an honest and loving fashion.
Train a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it. |
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Dillon International
There
was no time to catch my breath as the day progressed, and soon
it was evening and time to depart for Shangri-La Resort.
would
have a date for homecoming, and whether I would pass my driver's
test on the first try.
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