Almost RA
These last few days, I took the next few steps to becoming an official Colony RA for next year. Up to this point, the “responsibility” and “job” aspect of it all wasn’t quite there yet so I’m having a blast.
To start, CBU hosted the annual Christian College Leadership Conference, which all upcoming student leaders from area Christian universities attend. Azusa Pacific, Biola, Concordia, Vangaurd, Fresno Pacific, and even Arizona Christian University all sent busloads of students to CBU campus last Saturday for the event. By 8:30 a.m., students sporting shirts with their university’s logo gathered in a huge pack outside of the gym, and I was excited. At last year’s conference, the keynote speaker Bob Goff, author of Love Does, delivered an amazing message, followed by interesting leadership workshops and In-N-Out trucks. I also ran into high school friends from other universities that I hadn’t seen in forever. I was hoping for a repeat performance.
I wasn’t disappointed. To kick off the conference, All Sons & Daughters, a Christian Worship Folk band, lead the worship and filled the gym with acoustic energy. Then the keynote speaker, Josh Riebock, author of Heroes and Monsters, took the stage. He is a self-described story teller, and he kept the crowd laughing and focused on the message. The theme of CCLC this year was “Follow,” and he described The Never Ending Story as well as Jesus calming the storm to emphasis how we need to follow Jesus before we can expect others to follow us. That message kept the energy going as we dispersed to attend workshops about how to follow God. Then there was staff and recreation time, which was new this year. I met up with the other new East Colony RAs, which was only our second time doing so. That was great, though, since leading into our recreation we had a group to tag along with. Games and activities filled Stamps Courtyard, which included Kan Jam, slack lining, DJ Icy Ice blasting beats and more. I stuck around the Plinko board since the rules of the game forced random people to hug random strangers. Awkward to experience. Fun to watch. That was also a time for us to socialize with the other schools, whether by unexpected hugging or normal conversation. I even ran into one of my high school friends, Jim Levegood, from Vanguard University. I think I checked off every expectation I hoped for leading up to the conference. So far being an RA has been great.
And that idea continued. Last Tuesday was the official RA inauguration event, Passing the Torch. All of the new RAs for the whole campus met in Yeager to figuratively receive the torch from the RA they are succeeding. I was hoping for literal torch on fire, or at least a glow stick, but still I had a good time. Each living area prepared a funny video to welcome and provide advice for the incoming group. For East Colony, the RAs prepared a bachelor style selection video complete with candles and framed pictures of our faces as they chose their ideal replacement. My frame ended up being a picture of me from middle school that I haven’t seen in years and probably shouldn’t be seen ever again. I’m glad Facebook pictures are around to remind me how far I’ve come. Regardless, we all laughed along with the other videos and even went exploring the Colony to find our new apartments. I’ll be a Global Village RA, too, which means my residents will be mainly international students. I can’t wait to start.
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