Freshman Suprise!

Every October, the Freshman Surprise takes place. I am not sure how much of a surprise this year's was; everywhere we announced it, we called it the Freshman Surprise, but unofficially, we called it 'the bonfire'. That's what it was, by the way.

Six or seven weeks before it happened, the Freshman Council was told that they were to plan and execute an event. We had to figure out everything, what would happen, where it would happen, why it would happen, what its purpose was, what would be the reason people would want to come, what would the entertainment be, etc., which was new to us. Fortunately, at the first meeting about the Surprise, we did figure out that it would be on the 12^th, and it would have music. After that, we just went little bit by little bit.

My family played a big part in the bonfire (someday soon, I plan to go get a Thank You card for us who want to sign and send it to them). It took place at my grandparents' house and they were excited about it, especially my grandma! She called the day before and asked if she could buy anything like, maybe soda, for it, even though we were the ones who were supplying everything except the location. On the day of the Surprise, Heather Easter and I arrived early, about 2:30 (it is my grandparents' house, after all) to a yard full of tables covered in orange tablecloths. All Heather and I had to do was go get the roasting sticks and help move the heavy picnic table over by the garden. We had some down-time between when we got there and the rest of the Freshman Surprise people were supposed to arrive, so we watched some “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” with my grandpa. When other people began coming, though, we had no time to be bored. We were too busy setting out food and setting up the sound, milling around, playing volleyball (I had no idea anyone could do that in the dark!), and finally getting to go home to sleep!!!

Honestly, I don't think I ever heard an official count of how many people were there. I (as the most horrible estimator on the planet earth- don't listen to me, ask someone else) would guess that there were maybe forty-five..ish people there. Despite our seeming disorganization, the Surprise went extremely smoothly, almost... Surprise-ingly smoothly! We had no glitches with the sound equipment, except for a little feedback during the devotional, the fire went all night, no one was sitting around in a huge awkward silence, and we had enough roasting sticks and hot dogs! On top of that, just about everybody involved enjoyed themselves. And I am including my family as well. My grandparents loved having a whole bunch of college kids at their house; they like anything that gives God a chance to use them. My dad had fun with the fire (yeah, all those crazy guys that kept making the fire bigger? That was my dad, my grandpa, and my boyfriend). And of course, we all had fun with the bonfire, the hanging out, (cough the cookies cough), the worship and of course, the free meal!