This was quite an eventful and enjoyable week! Great news, I'm entirely cured of being sick. A few of the fun things I did this week were, attending a student run art competition night, climbing at The Circuit gym, having a jam session with friends, and hiking at Silver Falls south of Portland. One of the many highlights of my week was the New Student Trip (NST) reunion that Xena and I hosted on Thursday night. NSTs are trips put together by College Outdoors that take incoming freshmen or transfer students to a cool place in Oregon or Washington the week before school starts. They are a great way to bond with other incoming students and result in a group of friends to help new students get settled into life as a college student. They are also an opportunity to see some beautiful places in the PNW and potentially learn about oneself and the great outdoors. I went on a trip as an incoming freshman three years ago to Waldo Lake, and the people I met were monumental in making me feel at home my first semster at college. I'm pleased to say I'm still in touch with some of the other participants.
The reunion I had last night was for the trip I led to the Oregon coast this past August. My co-leader Xena and I hosted our NST participants at the College Outdoors wearhouse on campus for Bellagios pizza and s'mores around a cozy fire pit. Everyone was so happy to all be together despite the cold rainy weather. It was so nice to hear about what people were up to and how well they had been doing since we last gathered at the beginning of the semester. We passed back letters that everyone had written to themselves on our NST. People enjoyed laughing about what they wrote and finding some comforting words from their previous selves. Eventually people got ready to leave to head to their other evening activities. All eleven of those who came hugged Xena and I goodbye, bringing a smile to my heart. Xena and I sat back down and stared into the flickering fire. This was the first moment where I felt sad that I'm about to be leaving this school. I'm graduating in December, and my advice would be to try and not get too caught up in schoolwork and to savor every moment because you'll be done before you know it.
This picture is from our NST hike to a big cedar tree. Hope everyone has a good week!