I haven't blogged in a little while now. There are two reasons.
1) There's not very much time in Ocean City. There are always things to do and when there aren't things to do I feel compelled to find people to hang out with, at the risk of being alone for the rest ofmy life the summer.
2) I lost the pen that I use for illustrating so if I wanted to do a picture post I would have to use my finger and we've seen how that goes. And I really wanted to do a picture post so there wouldn't be two text blob posts in a row. But for the time being it's going to be text blob posts, and it took me a while to come to terms with this and just write something.
This is my fourth day in Ocean City. Absolutely unbelievable. These days have raced by like a herd of furious stallions.
I'm going to try to recall all my impressions because there have been a ton of emotions every day and sometimes when things are okay it's hard to remember what it was like when it wasn't so great.
Day 1 was great. There was the expected level of awkwardness and the expected number of handshakes and "Hi, yeah, I'm not gonna remember your name but what is it" conversations. Everyone was very friendly and I had the spiel down to a science. "I'm Nolan. I'm from Northwestern. I'm a bio major. I'll be a junior next year. What's your name, school, major, year and, if we're going to be walking next to each other for a little while, life plan?"
We had our timing down well because in the evening of the day we got in, there were Action groups, which is like Bible studies with the guys (or girls if you're a chick) from your room. So it was a chance to hang out with the guys that are going to be our bros for the summer, which is something that most quarter students won't get to do until next week.
The next day was the awkward one. We weren't quite new anymore so we weren't such a hot item and then it started to feel like the semester students wanted to hang out with the semester students who they already knew and had done bro-y things like wrestling with. I always felt like I was inserting myself into conversations to the chagrin of the conversationists.
And it was that place where it was like we all knew that we wanted to be pals and we knew we'd get there eventually but we still just didn't know each other that well and there's subtle things that make it harder to hang out -- like you don't value it as much when you laugh at each others' jokes and you don't know who's friendly and who's shy and who's being sarcastic.
Everyone was still friendly, but all of a sudden I wanted to be bro-y, not friendly.
Event-wise it was still sweet though. We ran around looking for jobs all day and then there was group dinner in the evening followed by a large group meeting at a local church that is apparently very fond of Cru as long as we wear nice pants to service. But it wasn't service, it was large group. So we wore shorts.
Anyway, it was a great time and then we went to an amusement park afterward despite lightning and rain because the rides were one ticket each for that night only and the lightning let up but a couple of us Northwestern kids didn't ride any rides because we have feeble constitutions.
Friday, things got better. By and large, the semester kids were phenomenally friendly and tried to make us feel at home by slapping our butts when they walked by or saying our names when they saw us to let us know that they remembered our names. I was starting to feel more bro-y than friendly -- but there was still a hard balance to keep because the people I enjoyed being around most were my Northwestern friends because we have so much history, but if I ever wanted to integrate then I needed to hang out with people that I didn't enjoy as much.
We went to the beach and played Spikeball and this is where it'd be real nice to draw a picture but I'm going to draw one with my words instead so hang on tight!
You have a round net in the middle, like a small trampoline. And there's a little rubber ball. You have two teams of two and you spike the ball back and forth on the net, playing like volleyball (3 hits each team, no double hits). You can't have double bounces on the net, and you can't hit the rim of the net.
You end up running around flailing and yelling and, after you get the hang of strategy, feeling like a boss when you make spikes.
We played Spikeball again today. I feel like it's going to be one of those things we do this summer.
Okay. And then today I did job stuff in the morning and then hung out on the beach all day and then came home and tried to squeeze in writing this blog post before dinner.
Three more things before I wrap this up:
1) Job searching is a huge pain. The semester students got here a week before us and took all the jobs. McDonalds is the only easy option left but I need more hours than they would give in order to pay for project so I'm putting out a ton of applications to other places. Didn't realize it was going to be so hard. Thanks for the heads up, guys from previous years who told me what to expect. But I've got a lot of prospects now so it might turn out okay. Just kidding. God's in charge. It's going to be fine. It's just hard for me to tell myself that sometimes.
2) Making new friends was as awkward and fake as I expected but it's also progressing through the awkward fake stage a lot faster than I thought it would. I'm starting to feel a little bit comfortable. That's a big plus.
3) I'll just go ahead and throw down a quick weekly schedule here for those people who would be trying to piece it together from the tidbits:
Sunday - church, something, something. I forget.
Monday - work, dinner, large group, hangout
Tuesday - work, dinner, date night with Jesus, hangout
Wednesday - work, dinner, Action group, hangout
Thursday - work, dinner, large group, hangout
Friday - work, cleaning up, chill
Saturday - chill, hangout, dinner, outreach
Discipleship squeezed in there somewhere.
This is going to be a tiring summer. I'm annoyed that I lost my pen. I'm annoyed that it's hard to find a job. I'm annoyed that I didn't get to show up with the semester students.
But there's already been several boardwalk outreaches. We're going again tonight. We had a worship night last night and people crowded around to see what was going on. There's a huge amount of people who need the Gospel passing through Ocean City, walking down the boardwalk two blocks away from where we sleep. God put us here.
And this is going to be a great summer.
1) There's not very much time in Ocean City. There are always things to do and when there aren't things to do I feel compelled to find people to hang out with, at the risk of being alone for the rest of
2) I lost the pen that I use for illustrating so if I wanted to do a picture post I would have to use my finger and we've seen how that goes. And I really wanted to do a picture post so there wouldn't be two text blob posts in a row. But for the time being it's going to be text blob posts, and it took me a while to come to terms with this and just write something.
This is my fourth day in Ocean City. Absolutely unbelievable. These days have raced by like a herd of furious stallions.
I'm going to try to recall all my impressions because there have been a ton of emotions every day and sometimes when things are okay it's hard to remember what it was like when it wasn't so great.
Day 1 was great. There was the expected level of awkwardness and the expected number of handshakes and "Hi, yeah, I'm not gonna remember your name but what is it" conversations. Everyone was very friendly and I had the spiel down to a science. "I'm Nolan. I'm from Northwestern. I'm a bio major. I'll be a junior next year. What's your name, school, major, year and, if we're going to be walking next to each other for a little while, life plan?"
We had our timing down well because in the evening of the day we got in, there were Action groups, which is like Bible studies with the guys (or girls if you're a chick) from your room. So it was a chance to hang out with the guys that are going to be our bros for the summer, which is something that most quarter students won't get to do until next week.
The next day was the awkward one. We weren't quite new anymore so we weren't such a hot item and then it started to feel like the semester students wanted to hang out with the semester students who they already knew and had done bro-y things like wrestling with. I always felt like I was inserting myself into conversations to the chagrin of the conversationists.
And it was that place where it was like we all knew that we wanted to be pals and we knew we'd get there eventually but we still just didn't know each other that well and there's subtle things that make it harder to hang out -- like you don't value it as much when you laugh at each others' jokes and you don't know who's friendly and who's shy and who's being sarcastic.
Everyone was still friendly, but all of a sudden I wanted to be bro-y, not friendly.
Event-wise it was still sweet though. We ran around looking for jobs all day and then there was group dinner in the evening followed by a large group meeting at a local church that is apparently very fond of Cru as long as we wear nice pants to service. But it wasn't service, it was large group. So we wore shorts.
Anyway, it was a great time and then we went to an amusement park afterward despite lightning and rain because the rides were one ticket each for that night only and the lightning let up but a couple of us Northwestern kids didn't ride any rides because we have feeble constitutions.
Friday, things got better. By and large, the semester kids were phenomenally friendly and tried to make us feel at home by slapping our butts when they walked by or saying our names when they saw us to let us know that they remembered our names. I was starting to feel more bro-y than friendly -- but there was still a hard balance to keep because the people I enjoyed being around most were my Northwestern friends because we have so much history, but if I ever wanted to integrate then I needed to hang out with people that I didn't enjoy as much.
We went to the beach and played Spikeball and this is where it'd be real nice to draw a picture but I'm going to draw one with my words instead so hang on tight!
You have a round net in the middle, like a small trampoline. And there's a little rubber ball. You have two teams of two and you spike the ball back and forth on the net, playing like volleyball (3 hits each team, no double hits). You can't have double bounces on the net, and you can't hit the rim of the net.
You end up running around flailing and yelling and, after you get the hang of strategy, feeling like a boss when you make spikes.
We played Spikeball again today. I feel like it's going to be one of those things we do this summer.
Okay. And then today I did job stuff in the morning and then hung out on the beach all day and then came home and tried to squeeze in writing this blog post before dinner.
Three more things before I wrap this up:
1) Job searching is a huge pain. The semester students got here a week before us and took all the jobs. McDonalds is the only easy option left but I need more hours than they would give in order to pay for project so I'm putting out a ton of applications to other places. Didn't realize it was going to be so hard. Thanks for the heads up, guys from previous years who told me what to expect. But I've got a lot of prospects now so it might turn out okay. Just kidding. God's in charge. It's going to be fine. It's just hard for me to tell myself that sometimes.
2) Making new friends was as awkward and fake as I expected but it's also progressing through the awkward fake stage a lot faster than I thought it would. I'm starting to feel a little bit comfortable. That's a big plus.
3) I'll just go ahead and throw down a quick weekly schedule here for those people who would be trying to piece it together from the tidbits:
Sunday - church, something, something. I forget.
Monday - work, dinner, large group, hangout
Tuesday - work, dinner, date night with Jesus, hangout
Wednesday - work, dinner, Action group, hangout
Thursday - work, dinner, large group, hangout
Friday - work, cleaning up, chill
Saturday - chill, hangout, dinner, outreach
Discipleship squeezed in there somewhere.
This is going to be a tiring summer. I'm annoyed that I lost my pen. I'm annoyed that it's hard to find a job. I'm annoyed that I didn't get to show up with the semester students.
But there's already been several boardwalk outreaches. We're going again tonight. We had a worship night last night and people crowded around to see what was going on. There's a huge amount of people who need the Gospel passing through Ocean City, walking down the boardwalk two blocks away from where we sleep. God put us here.
And this is going to be a great summer.
Hang in there Nolan! It takes a while to feel like you fit in, but just remember, it's not like in elementary school where the new kid had to prove that they were cool enough. These people want to get to know you and love you! They are your brothers and sisters and will end up being friends fo lyyffeeee :) Just give it time!
ReplyDeleteoh, nolan. This is a good one.
ReplyDelete