College
Freshman Year
The campus of Northwest Nazarene University is bright, cheerful, and full of life. However, one spot on campus is not what one would typically find in this kind of atmosphere. The freshman girls’ dorm harbors a room full of both mystique and intrigue for the people that have heard about this accommodation area.
No one occupies this room this year; it is instead used as a sort of storage facility (for extra bed frames, tables and chairs, that sort of thing). It is a particularly typical room, nothing out of the ordinary except for maybe a bit of dust buildup. The fluorescent lights shine as brightly as ever, but there is definitely a feeling of anticipation and excitement as the lights are shut off.
The room changes…that is the simplest way to put it. What were once white brick walls are now covered in glow in-the dark finger paintings. Names are written on the walls, dates are written above the doorframe, and eerie sketches cover the rest of the room—leaving only one wall untouched. The entire feeling of this dorm shifts into a feeling of uncanny strangeness…whether it is up to the rumors whispered from student to student, or simply our own imaginations. And while we do not know who or why someone painted these pictures, we can still speculate and view these graphics with incredulity.
*photo cred: Brandt Bullock
*caption written by Lexie Yancey
The Crew
I was just getting back from an intramural football game Saturday morning when my roommate Jack came in and told me he was going to this place called The Gutter. It sounded crazy awesome and I kind of wanted to go with but I was thinking about catching up on some homework after I took a shower. That idea was shot out of the sky when another friend called and invited me to go body surfing with them. About a minute latter I was in my swimsuit and ready to go.
The Gutter
It was about an hour and a half drive to the gutter which was a rapid to the side of a small dam that let a small amount of water past the dam. It was almost like stair steps in three spots and made a great spot for body surfing.
Pondering what to do
We all piled out of Tim’s suburban and looked at the rapids. With most of us having no clue as what to do Tim grabbed a board and jumped right in to the center of the rapid. He slid back a little where the water was spilling over some concrete but was all of a sudden in the wave of the rapid. He stayed there for about forty seconds surfing the rapid on his boogie board. After he had done that for a little while the current caught his board and sucked him back down the river.
Conner getting serious air
Tim having a blast
All of us were still a little unsure as in what to do. Tim showed us a couple more times and that was all we needed. After getting our bearings we battled each other in the wave, trying to kick the other person off their board or get them out of the wave. We got almost six people in the wave at the same time only to have one person take us all out as he tried to get in also. Some of the crazier people tried barrel rolls or even tried to get up on their knees while surfing.
Battling it out
Andy Surfing it up
After a while everyone started getting cold and ready to leave so we piled back into Tim’s suburban. We drove for about an hour and then stopped at a place about twenty-five minutes from campus where there was a rope swing and an old concrete wall that you could jump off of. We stayed there for ten or fifteen minutes while Andy and a couple others jumped in or tried out the rope swing.
Tim flip
Andy walking on water
In between the homework and classes sometimes there is time for something out of the normal. Last Wednesday me and some friends, Miles and Conner, took some pictures.
After an amazing session of Timeout we got my camera, a couple flashlights and some creative ideas and put them together and this is what we got.
Miles and Conner being the ones with the ideas while I operated the camera we would write in the air with a flashlight, while the camera was taking a picture.
As soon as they were done writing I would stop the camera and as you can see this is what
Give it a try!
What do I want to take to college? Or more importantly, what do I really need to take? Are the questions that kept running through my mind that morning as I began to pack my things into boxes and move them out of my room. I know there is plenty of room in my dorm for everything I have but for some reason I keep thinking that there is not.
As I am moving things into my hallway out of my room I realize my mom is ironing and folding all of the bead sheets and blankets that I will be taking with me. I think of how hard it must be for her, me being her first son going off away from home. Just as the thought crosses my mind my younger brother Neil walks by and jokingly says “Cant wait till your outta here!”
I finally finish moving all of my belongings out of my room and into my hallway. I look back at my room without all of the posters, refrigerator, clothes and excess belongings I had in it. As I do I realize how much different my life will be this next school year. How ill have a roommate and be around new people in a totally new world with totally new people, and it scares me. I am scared for a second and want to put everything back and just stay. Then I remember how much I have been looking forward to going to NNU.
