Hello friends, for today’s installment of Flashback Friday, I will be talking about orientation weekend at the beginning of the school year, which is almost over now. It’s amazing to see how much I’ve changed since then, but that’s for another time.
Oh, the good old days of orientation weekend, which were quite possibly some of the best days of my life. Most of us were now fresh new college students, out on our own and away from home, which was fairly close for me, but very far away for some. I remember being super excited for this day (August 27) to come. In fact, I spent most of my rather boring senior year of high school in anticipation of moving into the dorms
In the summer, I worked very hard being a full time lot attendant at Brooks Biddle Automotive, which led up to the day that I’d have to leave that job to go to college. When the day came, I was super excited. Even though I only got about 4 hours of sleep on and off the night before, I was still pumped for this new chapter in my life.
I was packing the day before and the morning of, and my parents helped, but they weren’t nearly as excited as I was, especially when we got there. Because of this, I rushed ahead of them, and they weren’t too pleased because they felt as though I left them out on this rather important day to all of us. Also, when we were moving into my room, I kind of tried to get them to leave as soon as they possibly could. I was a big jerk about it, and I deeply regret that because this day only comes once in a lifetime, and I basically ruined it for them. Anyhow, I hate having to dwell on past mistakes, so I decided to visit my parents every week on Sundays after church to sort of make up for that, which I still do to this day.
Part of what made orientation weekend so memorable was the fact that we had all of the freedom that college students, without having to deal with the inevitable days of doing homework and going to classes, or discovering the things about our roommates that would eventually start to drive us crazy. We all were just starting to meet each other and establish new friendships with individuals that used to be total strangers to us.
We had that Fred Meyer night for NU students, which was so much fun because I spent a good $350 during that shindig. Tasty corndogs and good deals aplenty. What’s not to forget about that? I got a TV (which i don’t use very often, but I’ve never regretted purchasing), lots of snacks, lots of energy drinks, peanut butter, and other things that college students would have in their dorm room.
Another thing we did was watch Big Hero 6 together, which was the first time for me. Since then, it has quite possibly become my favorite movie of all time, partially due to the sentimental value attached to it. Every time I watch Big Hero 6, it reminds of orientation weekend.
It’s times like these that have reminded me as to why God called me to go to Northwest University, and it has me looking forward to the amazing things he has in store for me during my second year.
Who knows, I might even get a girlfriend. I’ll just have to wait and see.
Stay classy (as always)
-Jared Reynolds
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