Speaker: Kelly Smith. This is Kelly's third talk on the history of Longchen Jigme Samten Ling, MSB's long-term retreat center. Kelly tells the origin story of long-term retreats commencing in 1995, when Rinpoche began imparting the Longchen Nyingtik lineage and its rituals to a handful of students. In 1997, Rinpoche's sister continued to demonstrate how ritual practices were conducted in the monastic tradition. Kelly shares what it was like to be among the first students to go into long-term retreat, including challenges with the physical environment, extended work periods, managing expectations and navigating uncertainty. These proved seminal in facing her ego attachment and self-clinging. In retrospect, she recognizes how these pioneering days were also filled with wonderment and joy, having shaped current retreat practices including work periods, being of service to others and seamlessly re-entering the quotidian world after retreat.