College Plus Gathering (Thursday)

This past weekend, Mom and I had the incredible opportunity of attending the 2^nd ever College Plus Gathering! For those of you who don’t know, College Plus is the program I will be starting in January. Not only is it a program to help me earn my Bachelor’s degree, it is truly a program designed to help me with Life Prep.

Because their program is online, and the students primarily interact via social media, they wanted to create an environment where students could actually meet face-to-face. Since CP is headquartered in Texas, they decided to host a live conference near the DFW area. It was within just a couple of hours from us, and I knew there was no way I could pass up this opportunity!

Mom and I left Thursday afternoon, headed for the conference! Thankfully our drive was uneventful, even though the epic ice storm of 2013 was on its way.

We gave ourselves some extra time in the event of bad weather. Since we had no troubles, we had time to stop at this fun, Christian-owned coffee shop and enjoy a late lunch.

We arrived at the camp around 4:30 p.m. and stopped by the registration area. Then Mom dropped me off at the girls’ dorm. After collecting my things, she drove over to the lodge where the parents had motel-style accommodations. I met about 8 of the girls and we decided to hang out together until dinner.

We walked over to the dining hall and played a game of Triple Threat together. It was so fun, and a great way to break the ice.

Our schedule got changed around a bit because so many people arrived late due to the weather. So we went ahead and had our dinner, and started our sessions.

The first session was by Ryan Yamane, one of the co-founders of College Plus. It was  entitled “Why Are We Here?” and he took the time to answer that question as well as share his own story, and the purpose of College Plus.

After he spoke, the coordinators introduced themselves and then had an activity for us. We had to find everyone in our age group without talking, and only using one hand to gesture. It was quite amusing, but we actually did it quite quickly! Then, from our age groups, we broke up into small groups of 5 or 6 people.

I grew to truly love the people in my group! There were two other girls, one who is just like my best friend from high school, and the other who shares a passion for Haiti. One of the guys was from NJ and had a big interest in computers; another guy lives only about two hours from me, and the third played Dylan in the movie “Courageous!” In our small groups, we went around and peppered each other with questions, trying to get to know each other as quickly as possible. It was great!

Then—because we’re crazy college students. J--we went on a hay ride in the ice and snow! It was quite short, but still fun.

We still had a couple of hours until lights out. We went upstairs to the aerobics room in the fitness center, and a couple of the girls started teaching us how to swing dance. I did ballet for 8 years, but I’ve never done any other type of dance. I had a lot of fun learning with JT, one of the guys in my group. I actually learned how to successfully do the Pretzel! We also learned the Virginia Reel. Group dances are a lot of fun! Although I admit I was pretty tired by the end of it; we had so many couples, it took us about 20 minutes to go through it once!

I went to bed that night pretty tired, but quite happy. I knew right away that the retreat was going to be too short. I was already forging great friendships and enjoying every minute!

To be continued . . .