Ben, ‘11

Well, summer’s here and I spent the first week at a retreat for InterVarsity called Rockbridge. I left Tuesday and returned on Sunday. It was held in Western Virginia and it was held at an amazing place. It had a giant zipline over the lake, a blob, giant slides, volleyball courts, disc golf, a high ropes course, climbing wall, and lots of other great things. Naturally, I took advantage of them all.

The awesome water slides and blob

The great lawn in front of the dining center

Playing volleyball with some friends

Playing cabbageball with friends (It’s basically softball without gloves)
Being dropped from the giant swing

I climbed this pole…

Stood on the top…

And then jumped off

Another friend doing the daredevil leap

Fellow Richmonders on the high ropes course

Having fun on the ropes course

Our group that did the ropes course together

However, the whole purpose was to train members of InterVaristy on leadership and general tracks for living a Christian life. I took a tract called Kingdom Living and we dealt with issues of multiethnicity, sexuality, social justice, the environment, and Christians in politics within our group. In addition, we studied the Sermon on the Mount and broke off into small groups where I made some good friends from the University of North Carolina. There were about 350 students there from about ten different schools in the Virginia and Carolinas region. Each night, we held a worship service and the week was a great experience overall.

A beautiful stream at the retreat where I did my Retreat of Silence

One of my favorite things about Rockbridge was the volleyball. I hadn’t been able to play in a while, so it was great to get in hours of playing, both with friends from UR and complete strangers. I spent four hours playing volleyball in the hot sun on the first day. I got a little sunburnt, but it was worth it. At the end of the week, there was a tournament between schools and, even though our team lost in the semifinals, we still had a great time. Richmond won the Spirit Award with our overwhelming fan section, school spirit, and amazing cheerleading, beating UNC, Duke, and other schools that were much larger in the process (which we took great pride in doing).

Getting serious with the facepaint

This is how we arrived to the volleyball tournament

Look at that intensity

Playing in the tournament

Some of our fantastic cheerleaders

I’m ready to battle on the volleyball courts

Cheering for the judges of the Spirit Award (which we won)

Our final pose

Along the way, I made many new friends. I am the only freshman male on leadership for the Richmond chapter, but I made a new friend from North Carolina State who is also a freshman. His school was coming the next week, but he couldn’t come with them, so we adopted him as an honorary Spider and we became fairly close. Maybe we’ll go visit him sometime. Of course, I also developed relationships with other Richmond people. I only knew some of them vaguely before the trip, but now we are much closer. As a chapter, we set some goals and also played some games, such as Catchphrase and Connection. During Connection, I was on the edge of a bench and got so excited that I fell off backwards onto the floor. It was pretty embarrassing.

Hanging out on the porch of one of the cabins

Playing Catchphrase as a chapter

Me and my fellow freshman friend. We decided to make
fun of the poses the girls were making

The guys I hung out with for the week

Our University of Richmond InterVarsity Leadership Team

CONNECTION!!!

Now that I’m back, I’m working in the Admissions Office giving tours for a week before starting my research for the summer. I’m moving between residence halls and apartments often, so I feel like a homeless person at times, wandering around with my luggage that I need for the next few days and week. Anyways, I get some quiet time and lots of free time this week and I’ll see what else life has in store for me. This blog used a lot of pictures since that’s the easiest way to show what this week was about, so I hope you liked them.

Quote of the Week: “Purity is not the absence of something bad, but rather the presence of something good” -A teacher of my tract at Rockbridge
Thought to Ponder: Why does an “X” stand for a kiss?
Shout Outs: Anyone who has ever been to Rockbridge
YouTube Video of the Week:

Some fun optical illusions for you