To be completely honest, I came to Odyssey with some reservations. Not necessarily about the mushrooms experience itself, but rather the surrounding infrastructure. The idea that there was a number of group sessions both before and after the journey garnered some level of anxiety in me. Would I be forced to share in these sessions? What if I didn't like the people I was sharing a home with? Would the entire exercise be too 'granola' for me, coming from a corporate background in the Northeast?
Every single one of these concerns was thoroughly put to bed by the end of the first day. I cannot give enough credit to Aaron, our lead facilitator, along with his co-facilitators - Michelle and Alex - for creating one of the most open, encouraging (yet respectful) environments that also made room for levity, humor, and opportunities to remain grounded in the 'real' world around us.
For example, immediately after the mushrooms experience, Aaron went out of his way to order burgers and fries for a few of us who were craving. Additionally, the day after the experience, one small subset of our group went to enjoy a nearby pool, while another stayed at the house to relax. While things like this may not seem like much in and of themselves, I cite them as examples to underline the fact that though there is structure to the Odyssey experience, every single individual involved is empowered and entrusted to follow their own joy, and Aaron, Alex, and Michelle could not be more deft or capable facilitators for creating that environment.
It is solely because of the genuine care and compassion of every single member of the Odyssey family that my personal experience went from an initial expectation of a fun and unique way to spend a weekend, to a profoundly moving experience that has left me not just with new discoveries and a greatly enhanced relationship with my own empathy for both myself and those around me, but also a new family in the fellow participants. Every single one of them I would trust implicitly to reach out to either in a time of need, or simply to chat and catch up, and the authenticity of relationships that strong that are forged over such a short amount of time is a testament to the profoundly impressive capabilities of the entire facilitation team.
Finally, I want to take a moment to especially recognize and give thanks to Gabe, Odyssey's founder and CEO. Similarly to my initial thoughts on the retreat as a whole, I had some degree of skepticism that this was more of an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new industry than it was about giving people from all walks of life the opportunity to experience something truly unique and potentially change their lives in profound ways. I could not have been more wrong. Despite there being no expectation whatsoever, Gabe stopped by the homes multiple times, often just to be a quiet, but comforting, knowledgable, and supporting presence in the room. I can give perhaps no better example than the message it sends of true compassion and dedication to the human impact of the Odyssey experience that he was just as quick, if not quicker, than anyone else involved to help do dishes after meals, or even run to the store for extra groceries. While I have no doubt he's a shrewd and capable business leader, no matter the levels of success he reaches, I will alway be impressed and admire his empathy, humility, and genuine interest in helping people truly improve their lives for the better and taking a genuine risk with his own livelihood in founding Odyssey to make that happen.