BLOG
Continued from Dawn of the First Day Thursday, June 15 8:03 AM: The car re-arrives at Warren Wilson, for good this time. Registration doesn’t open for a couple hours; we settle in the student lounge. Dad and I share some YouTube. 8:42 AM: Mom and Dad leave to do important things. I, too, do important things—I lay down and close my eyes, utilizing the super-comfiness of the lounge couches (a quality I like to call nap-titude). 9:48 AM: I rouse myself and stumble to the registration table; it’s open now. Key—received. Keycard—acquired. Perfect. I’m here for SAYMA, the annual gathering of the Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting Association. It’s a four-day Quaker convention. I’ve written before about my time with SAYF; this is its parent organization. My little brother is graduating from SAYF this year, and there’s a strong tradition of the Young Adult Friends (YAFs; we Quakers love our acronyms) welcoming the graduates into our fold. It matters that I’m here, to him and to me, especially since I was part of the same community. 10:02 AM: Now that I can get into the YAF dorm, I lug my suitcase and backpack and pillow and breakfast into my room. My roommate has already set up camp on one bed—turns out he was a few years behind me in SAYF. He’s not there right now, but I make a mental note. I claim the other bunk and unpack. 10:16 AM: My untended YouTube feed calls to me, and I answer. Nobody’s on campus yet anyway.
10:53 AM: I grab my breakfast perishables (yogurt, greens, and some hardboiled eggs) and hunt for a fridge. 10:56 AM: My quest ends in disappointment. Drat. 11:01 AM: I poach some room in the SAYF fridge, hoping beyond hope that my food will make it through the weekend. 11:08 AM: Seeing the lead SAYF chaperone confronted with a mountain of duties, I chip in with set-up, unlocking all their dorm rooms for them. My ego shimmies with pride again. 11:32 AM: My community service for the weekend complete, I head over to the cafeteria a bit early to hang out and be there when lunch opens. 12:00 PM: Lunch opens. Most of the food is either locally sourced or grown on the college farm. I love this place. 12:16 PM: I catch sight of a dear friend. We hug. We catch up. I’m happy. 12:50 PM: Bye lunch. You were delicious. 12:53 PM – 4:49 PM: The afternoon passes in a blur. Walking. Podcasts. Friends everywhere I’m loving my new sandals. 5:00 PM: Dinnertime! Huzzah! More good food! More good friends! 6:13 PM: We finally leave the cafeteria and let the good folks at WWC finish their cleaning duties. 6:19 PM: Feeling a little restless, I do some calisthenics in my room. #fitlyfe 7:22 PM: I go to the evening gathering, which dives deeper into the weekend’s theme: “Weaving Our World Together: Lifting Up Racial Justice.” A supercut of historical and documentary footage about America’s structurally racist past. Discussion. Another supercut, this one of present-day initiatives supporting minority communities. 9:38 PM: In good Quakerly fashion, the event runs late. Everyone files downstairs for Chat and Chew. It is exactly what it sounds like. 9:47 PM: Despite inspiring and engaging conversation, I feel absolutely wiped. I depart for my bunk. 9:55 PM: I arrive at my room. Brush teeth. Sleep shorts. Head hits pillow. Darkness. Tune in tomorrow for Part 3...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About My BlogStories. Archives
May 2020
Categories
All
|