Since I have been home, and moving
in to a new area in life, like most people I think, I have been reflecting on
the good things that have happened over the last chapter in life, and I can say
that it has been a huge blessing of a semester and most all of the memories are
very good ones! I grew in my walk with God, most importantly, but have also met
some of the coolest people and they have become friends, and I will always
consider them some of my closest friends. These friends made me feel welcome
and a part of their community so fast, I was shocked, considering the fact of
how weird I am! I have found that there are some great, wonderful friends, and
I found them in this group. This group is the bungalow!
Although they might have had a different
reason for naming it the bungalow, the meaning I found for the world bungalow
is a dwelling place for a single family. And while these girls were like a
family to me this last semester, and made me feel welcomed and loved whenever I
was over.
and I always had some crazy ideas, and I’m not sure what made us think that
they were cool or that other people would want to do them. For instance, a
sunrise hike on Saturday mornings. Pete and I had the crazy idea, and we threw
out the idea to some people, and the first time anyone said yes, it was the
bungalow. Pete and I showed up at
5:30 in the morning, and sure enough the girls not only showed up, but had made
muffins for everyone to eat on their way up. A crazy, early morning hike idea
showed up by some hardcore girls who got up even earlier just to make us some
food to enjoy.
I
remember those first few hikes very well. At this point, I didn’t really know
any of them too well, but after those short hikes and hanging upside down from
trees and taking pictures in a old foundation, wondering whether or not I
should be spinning, I knew I had found some amazing friends in these girls.
That weekend started a little tradition of hiking to see the sunrise, and then
back to Pete’s house where we would have an amazing pancake breakfast, with
eggs and even some amazing homemade Mexican salsa. Life truly doesn’t get much
better!
I’m not sure why, but no matter how many times I came up with something crazy
to do, like a 5k on a mountain, I would jokingly tell them we should all do it,
and somehow they would all respond with a “alright!” And those runs were truly
some of the most fun days of my life!
later, when a 10k came up, we all signed up again to do that and once again had
so much fun. Then after the 10k, we all went to see the beautiful downtown area
of Charlottesville, and just explored the stores and walked around.
Not
only did they run crazy races with me, they even were amazing enough to waste
an entire Saturday, get up way before even the butt crack of dawn to come watch
Pete, my dad and me run a marathon. I mean how much cooler can people get?
probably one of my favorite memories of my life was at the very end of the
semester when my birthday was coming up, and I wanted to do something awesome.
I didn’t know what exactly, and at the last moment, I came up with the idea of driving
an hour away, going to my favorite restaurant and seeing “the star”. They were
all in, which shocked me, but it was such a fun time!
Among
all these awesome things they did with me, they even let me in to their house
pretty much any time I wanted, but I had to knock(Ryan Wheeler). They let me
watch America’s next top model with them, let me sleep on their porch when I wanted
to sleep outside, they showed me the awesomeness of badgers, told me to shut up
constant (even though I never will Amanda), eat their food, and just enjoy
their company whenever would wander on over.
So
when I sat down and thought about the things I have done, and how awesome this
last semester has been, the bungalow has been an amazing part of it and showed
me how awesome community and friendship can be. And I feel its safe to say that
Ryan Wheeler and I are honorary members of the bungalow. I am excited to learn more about
community in this next year, and thanks to all the girls at the bungalow, I feel
like I have a good head start!
