Making Tus Olas Happen
It was just a week ago. Monday evening, five of us (Haven, Susie, Betty, Kat, and myself) gathered at my house for volunteer training. We unpacked a lot, and we left feeling like a team. Solidified. Ready.
Then Tuesday happened.
I was headed to Costco when I connected with Jess and hit our first real obstacle of the week. The school in La Misión had moved registration to Wednesday, which meant we'd lose most of our girls. So we moved Tus Olas, Wednesday to Thursday instead. The wild thing is that when Jess and I were comparing calendars for Tus Olas there were literally only two possible days the entire summer, that Wednesday and that Thursday.
I think there's a version of reflecting on things like this where you just say "everything went the way it was supposed to," and in a lot of ways I believe that and I also think it matters to notice what shifted along the way to get there. Because of that change, more girls were able to join us. Our volunteer team shifted a little too, and that felt a bit sad. We ended up with one extra day, a day that, it turned out, we needed to feel even more ready for the wave that was now Thursday.
The Stations
In developmental psychology we talk about narrative identity, the idea that we come to know ourselves through the stories we tell about our lives, and that adolescence is when that inner story making really begins. That was the heart behind the stations, a simple way in to something the girls are already doing every day, whether they realize it or not. We tried to hold it loosely and let them engage however they needed to. What happened was more than we could have planned for.
We opened with wave breathing. Breathe in through the nose, belly filling, imagine a wave building. Breathe out through the mouth, belly relaxing, let the wave fall. Again and again, each wave a little bigger, until the room went quiet and calm. I loved getting to do this while the waves were crashing behind us and we had the visual not only in our minds…literally in front of us, that was special!
From there the girls had five stations to navigate through, moving at their own pace. In between each one there was space to sit, write, reflect, or just take a glance at a verse and what it says is true about how they were made.
At STATION ONE they sat with the moments that made them who they are, four to eight of them, big and small, happy and hard and complicated all mixed together. One moment per post it, color coded, placed along a wave they were drawing with their own hands. Your story is made of many moments, the station reminded them. One wave doesn't define the whole ocean.
STATION TWO they were invited to name what they were feeling right now, using an emotion wheel to find the actual words, and a scale to gauge how loud it was. A ripple, a swell, or a full crash. The invitation for this station went beyond just recieiving the wheel, it was this reminder that people are made to experience complex feelings…meaning we often are not experiencing just one feeling at a time and that is a gift…a complex gift for sure!
In- between was the invite to sit with Psalm 42. Deep calls to deep, your waves have swept over me. The detail that gets missed is that the psalmist isn't writing this from the shore, already dried off. He's writing it from inside the storm. You don't have to be calm to be cared for.
Then came the currents, STATION THREE, the hidden parts of a person, the ones that don't always make it to the surface. The girls stood at a mirror lined with Soy, I am, statements and got to pay attention to how it felt to read through each one. Which ones felt true. Which ones felt like something to grow into. Some added their own. A Soy sticker went on the wave after. The girls also got to add their own statements. I loved getting to watch them do this and then for each girl who visited to get to read the previous “soy” statements was so special…this station had a lot of re-visits.
In-”between we offered, Psalm 139. Where can I flee from your presence, even the darkness is not dark to you. No version of you, no failure, no hidden thing, puts you outside of love. You were never out of it.
Waves lead somewhere, and that's what STATION FOUR was about, the shoreline. The people, places, memories, pets that hold a person up. Each girl picked a shell, wrote a name or an initial or just what it meant, and set it on her wave.
In between, we shared the story from Mark 2, the four friends who carried a paralyzed man to Jesus, and when the crowd blocked the door, climbed the roof and lowered him through it instead. Sometimes the strongest thing isn't strength. It's letting yourself be carried. You were made to be carried, and to carry others too.
And at the last station, STATION FIVE, the horizon, because the story isn't finished. There are still waves ahead. Each girl wrote a letter to her future self. What she wants to remember, hold onto, is proud of, never wants to forget. Then she sealed it to be opened whenever the reminder is needed.
The last in between space held Isaiah 54:10. Though the mountains be shaken, my unfailing love for you will not be shaken. This love was never resting on anything the girls had to hold steady. It was never theirs to keep in place to begin with.
Lunch
We flowed straight from the stations into lunch, and this is the part where I really felt it. After everything we'd planned and prepped, what the girls were most hungry for was just connection. Simple, unplanned, sitting next to each other connection. I wish it could have lasted three times as long. Temporary tattoos everywhere, girls still finishing their wave scrolls between bites, conversations overlapping. I could have stayed in that hour all day.
The Creative Expression
Toward the end of lunch, Haven jumped in and led the girls from their wave reflections into something they could keep, an individual wave design, stitched onto fabric, telling their own story in thread. The thing we were careful about here was the line between craft and experiential learning. We wanted this to tie the whole day together, not just give them something cute to take home.
Haven shared her own wave first, her own story, and then walked them through it. Threading a needle, two basic stitches, sketching a design, transferring it onto fabric, all without ever losing the thread of why they were doing it. Watching that part of the day come alive was something else. Every design was different. Every one of them true to the girl who made it.
The Wrap Up
As we started wrapping up, Susie, Betty, and Haven worked without stopping to iron the designs onto shirts. A handful of girls decided to finish theirs at home, everyone else walked away that day wearing their own Tus Olas shirt. By then it was hot, and we'd all spent every ounce of attention we had, so we closed it out with a quick sharing circle and let the girls have the pool for the last hour.
Because really, what better way to close out a day about waves than to let them make some of their own.
I don't think I've felt anything more satisfying than that first dip into what might be the most perfect pool I've ever been in. I still can't fully thank the family who opened their home to us. Every part of that space held the day exactly the way it needed to be held.
What We Learned
There's still a lot to process. I'll be following up with Haven, Susie, and Jess. I've already had a couple of sweet conversations with other volunteers, and I've mostly just been sitting with it all this weekend. I didn't want to rush into "here's what we should change" mode before letting the whole thing settle. But here's a little of what's surfaced so far.
We felt rushed. I hesitate to even say that word, because it sounds more negative than I mean it, but honestly it did feel rushed. If Tus Olas could be a two day retreat someday, I think that would be incredible.
Things didn't go the way we expected. They never do, and we know that. I opened the trunk and a watermelon fell out and splattered everywhere. I was covered, and I mean covered, in watermelon juice, all day long. I got completely stuck troubleshooting a polaroid camera that wouldn't work even with brand new batteries. Pickup ran long for Jess, who I need to say this clearly, is an actual hero for shuttling 14 girls to and from this thing. Oh, and I ended the day slammmmming my head on a concrete ledge leading to a minor concussion, not only did I see waves all day long, I got to see some stars too!
The sharing time is probably the thing I keep coming back to. I asked a question that was too open ended, and I knew it the moment it left my mouth. It didn't land the way I'd pictured. I'd do that part differently next time for sure and that's okay. Im very thankful Jess followed up and reminded the girls there was no pressure to share because she would be there anytime after the day to process more.
Susie KILLLLLLLLED it will translation…holy moly what a gift she has. We did a lot in spanish and for were able to also practice parts with translation because honestly she made that feel so incredibly easy and fluid and wow. I just have to figure out how to keep here around forever, after she goes and gets her masters in Spain that is, what a gift she is!
Here's What I Keep Coming Back To
If I'm confident in anything, it's that these lessons are worth sitting with, because I believe more than ever that experiences like this first Tus Olas are needed. Not just here, not just in Ensenada, EVERYWHERE.
We built a day meant to give young people space to explore their stories. What we got back was girls who showed up fully and showed us just how much possibility there really is in this kind of space.
This was the first Tus Olas…It won't be the last!
Thank you thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has cared, who has been reading along, who has checked in, who has funded this, to everyone who volunteered. A million thank you’s to Haven and Susie who went above and beyond and for Jess and Dustin for trusting this vision and for the collaboration. Uhhhh I am so thankful it’s stupid.
