The Invasion Of The Freshmen – Bethany College

The first move in the invasion was made by the freshman (well at least from my point of view). I was in bed and even though it was about 12:30pm I was still asleep (what can I say? There were a lot of old friends from last year to catch up with that I went to school with last year) when I heard the first car door slam. As I slowly managed to wake myself up I heard the clicking of someone trying to punch in the code for the men’s dorm and failing to gain access every time. As I sat up in bed I smiled to myself and thought back to my first day at Bethany College, I felt lost, confused and frustrated beyond all belief that I couldn’t get that stupid door to the men’s dorm open. Once I had the sense to go and ask someone what the code was and write it down on my hand, I decided to stop by the washroom in the main administration building quickly before heading over to the dorm to move all of my things in. Needless to say that after washing my hands the code was no longer there and I failed to notice this until I was once again standing outside the door holding as much of my stuff that I could possibly carry desperately trying to remember the code that I had written down just six minutes ago. Luckily for me, there just happened to be a returning student coming up the pathway to the dorm who did remember the security code for the day. Much of my first few weeks at Bethany consisted of events similar to this. I had an amazing ability to immediately completely forget most of the important information that was shared with me causing me to feel and I’m sure look like a complete fool.

Yes, the freshman experience is an amazing one, filled with adventure, confusion and a lot of desperately trying to remember everyone’s names as well as where everything on campus is. I am really super excited that the first years showed up today. I have met all of the guys in my dorm unit and even though I have only spoken to each one briefly they seem like a really cool and fun group of guys. This year my RA’s (Resident Assistant) name is Eric Penner. The RAs in the dorms are a group of guys that each live with and oversee one unit of the dorm each. The reason I am so excited for Eric to be my RA this year is because he was in the same unit as me last year and he is just a super sweet guy with an amazing heart for God and serving others. Even though Eric is a second year student here at Bethany and I am a fourth year student I have no problems with him being in an authority position over me because we are friends and I know that he is not the kind of guy that makes sure everyone he has authority over knows it and acts like he is superior to us. Eric is the kind of guy that is always there to talk if you need him; he is always willing to help out anyone with anything anytime no matter what and he is an amazing man of God that allows God to show his love through him all the time with everyone that he comes in contact with. All these qualities that Eric has are a big part of why I am excited to have him as and RA this year but the main reason that I am happy about it is because he had a bottle of ‘Green Apple Jones Soda’ and a note saying “welcome home Aaron!” waiting for me in my room on my desk when I arrived at school on Friday …. Lol Just kidding that’s not the main reason but it does play a pretty big part in my excitement.

I am really looking forward to how God is going to be working in my life throughout this school year even though I have already been turned down to play in the main chapel band here already without even being given a chance to prove that I can do it (you can read about my feelings about that in my previous blog that I believe I wrote and posted yesterday). Despite this setback I still believe that God will have big things in store for me as an individual and Bethany as a community this year.

Before I finsh up this post I do have one confession to make especially for any freshman that are reading this; even though this is my fourth year here, I still had to go back and ask someone to tell me what the dorm code is again and or let me in several times since Friday afternoon already. Oh the humility …. I am pretty sure I have it memorized now though however, I can’t share it with you in this post because it is very much against the school rules and I would have to pay $250.00 that I don’t have for a fine for distributing the code publicly. Sorry first year guys, you are on your own there unless you really can’t get in I would be more than happy to help you out if you personally come and ask me to let you in (only if you are a student living in the dorm).

That’s all I have as far as insane ramblings about that first day at Bethany College for now. Good luck first years! I’m really happy you guys are here and I look forward to getting to know you!