Odyssey of the Sul was a Blast!

By Meredith Botnick, red belt

It’s not very often that adults get to go to summer camp, so when The Odyssey of the Sul was announced it offered a truly unique and special opportunity for adults to take a break from the real world for a few days. Spending a long weekend in the mountains doing a mix of camp activities and taekwondo was amazing and was an experience I hope to repeat in the future. 

Camp started on Thursday afternoon, and while it was a stormy afternoon in Denver it was absolutely gorgeous at Snow Mountain Ranch. Despite the forecast saying otherwise, the weather really couldn’t have been better all weekend. Once everyone was checked in, we gathered in the Centennial building for dinner which presented an excellent opportunity to meet students from other schools before everything kicked off. After the first of several amazing meals, we regrouped in Leggett and met our teams for the weekend. Each team was named after an Ancient Greek hero, and we began work on a demo that symbolized our heroes and incorporated different aspects of Moo Sul Kwan training before calling it a night. 

With the theme of camp being about a journey, on Friday many of us journeyed back to childhood with the camp activities. It was so much fun to try out archery, tackle my first climbing wall in nearly 20 years, and go zip lining surrounded by spectacular scenery. We capped off the day with a round of mini golf and then laughter and fun with the tubing hill and the “Minute to Win It” games after dinner. 

Saturday started with a bit of training before breakfast and then dove back into our Odyssey of the Sul with a hike to the waterfall with one step sparring and self defense training along the way. The hike was meant to be a journey and not a race, and our group leaders facilitated wonderful discussions along the way. It was really neat to get to know the other members of my group and learn about their individual journeys in Moo Sul Kwan. We came back having forged new and better relationships with our groups and gaining a better understanding not only of Moo Sul Kwan but each other. We spent the rest of the afternoon making our videos and prepping our demos before another fun filled evening of games, live music, and our own CTI version of line dancing. 

Sunday began with a bit of a bittersweet feeling of reflecting over the awesomeness of the last few days but knowing that like all good things camp must end and we all needed to get back to reality. We all performed our demos to the families that had gathered for the end of camp, and it was truly awesome to see the creativity each group used in their demos along with learning more about the Ancient Greek heroes. We were able to spend a last few minutes reflecting on our journeys, both as individuals and as a group, as we watched the video compiled of each group’s activities over the weekend. 

I drove back to Denver at the conclusion of camp feeling renewed in my journey within Moo Sul Kwan and ready to tackle my day to day life with new perspectives and energy. The Odyssey of the Sul was a truly unique and amazing experience, and I would highly recommend that the other adult students in CTI participate the next time we do a “big kids” camp.