Freshman Rock!

One of the many things I love about Morrison, is the essence of community.

Not just the recognition that we are a community, but the cultivating, the on-purpose building up of community. I am not speaking of just the staff and the parents, but that of the students. 

At the beginning of each school year, the first two weekends are busy. The first with the BYOP (Beginning of the Year Party- very original, huh?) and the following week- the class retreats.

Each class, gathers together, to hang out, to bond. I know this may seem strange when you consider that the majority of these classes have been together for years, and years and years, and in some cases, since kindergarten! But every year brings new students, new challenges, and new maturity.

Our first year here, these retreats were cancelled due to a passing typhoon, that never actually came. Being new, we didn't understand the significance of this loss. 

Last year, Ben's senior class spent the weekend in Taipei. 

This past Friday evening, Jacob as a freshman participated in his first class retreat. Being the "babies" of high school, their retreat doesn't actually last overnight. Just Friday evening.

Since the class is still small (only 31 students) and many are staff kids, meaning their homes are on campus, a progressive dinner was planned. Five courses, five houses.

Loving soups as I do, Carl and I volunteered to do the third, or rather soup course. 

So leaving my classroom at an unheard time of 3:45pm, I rushed home to an amazingly clean house. My husband may be better at cleaning than me. 

Carl, besides cleaning, had started one soup in the crockpot. I made a second on the stovetop.

The house smelled delicious. And even though she herself had a retreat to attend, Abbi begged for a small sample of each. Both passed her taste test!

By 6:15, everything was ready. Now, we just needed Jake and his classmates to show up. Thinking they would most likely arrive by the front door, I remembered the preceding course was on the same floor as ours. The apartment, however, was in a different section accessed by a different elevator. The quickest and easiest access between the two apartments, was to cut through another freshman's apartment. But, I wondered, would they realize this?

The answer was yes, because shortly thereafter, the back door flew open and in single file marched thirty teenagers. They filled every chair and all available floor space. 

It was crowded.

 It was noisy.

It was wonderful!  

 

In addition to eating, each home played a game. Ours required teams of three to stand on a piece of newspaper for three seconds. After each round, the paper was folded in half. What ensued was tons of laughter, screaming, and thudding. Luckily, the apartment below was the last stop of the dinner and understood the noise emitting from their upstair's neighbor. 

Thirty minutes was all it took to turn one clean apartment into a disaster, two middle-aged parents extremely worn out, and one cupful of soup leftover to split between the before mentioned parents.

But, it was well worth it!