Thursday, July 5, 2012

God Bless America

Well, these past few days have been absolutely insane, amazing, inspiring, exhausting, long, hot, and sweaty. I love the fact that I have only been here in Blacksburg for 5 days but it feels like 5 weeks. Orientation will do that to ya! So let me give you a brief recap of my whereabouts these past few days.

On Sunday night, we kicked off Orientation training at the River Course Bull and Bones. We took vans out to Radford and enjoyed a delicious dinner with a beautiful view of the golf course and river. 


The next morning we left for Wilderness Adventure. Now this was my third time going to "Wild Wonder"...which is so funny because last year I just kept reminding myself I would only have to do this once. But little did I know I would be back in full force for both a NSP retreat in the winter and round two of Orientation training in the wilderness with 2OL2.  

I really enjoyed my time at Wilderness Adventure this year as an OA. It was great to get to step back and watch my team, the Terminions, as well as the entire Orientation Team overcome many challenges and obstacles and truly build a great team dynamic. 



I was especially proud of all that my team was able to accomplish on both low ropes and when working on their skit (even though they claim to have done "nothing" that first night). To me, success  is not measured by how quickly a team can come up with an idea for a skit or a solution to a team building exercise. Success is achieved by the way a team works through adversity and conflict to build that awesome team dynamic. And after our two days at Wilderness Adventure, I am fully confident that the Terminions are going to be a solid, SOLID team. 



The following day was the 4th of July! The Orientation Team and Staff walked in the Blacksburg parade in the afternoon. We passed out candy to the children lined up along Main Street and cheered Old Hokie while we made our way to the Pylons. It was a blast!



From spending a few days in the woods, to wearing red, white, and blue and walking in a parade, to sitting on a stranger's lawn to watch the Blacksburg fireworks....I could not have asked for a better start to the month of July. God Bless America. 


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