S Y C
It was a hazy day in the last week of June in 1998. We had been looking forward to this day all year, and it had finally come. Crysta's Dad pulled up at my house around 9:00 in the morning, and I lugged all my suitcases out to the car. The next stop was to pick up Jesse.
The car ride brought about many quotes and conspiracies. Perhaps the most memorable of these was Jesse's classic sound effects, that just can't be matched by anyone. :) Along the way, the Hanson conspiracy also began, but sadly, none of has any idea how it got started...
We arrived at West Virginia Wesleyan College around 12:00 that afternoon. There, the three of waited in a forever long registration line, where we spotted long-time SYC member, KRISTEN BRIER!
Jesse and I got up to the desk and recieved our dorm assignments, and to my horror, we were put in Doney Hall! Now, Jesse had no idea of what terrors would ensue us at Doney, but for me, it was my third consecutive year of the madness.
The rest of the afternoon was spent finding the members of what was to be our week-long group. There's Adrienne who cowered in the corner avoiding our use of the word "skanky" for fear it would corrupt here. Then there was Annika who "could eat whatever she wanted, and was so much thinner than any of us!" Ryan Hudgins and Erin came abord... only to begin the controversial love saga of the week. Natali was there, offering everyone "napkins" while they were choking, and potentially facing death. And of course, who could forget Jennifer. Somehow, Jennifer managed to avoid being in almost every SYC picture taken, and to this day, no one knows quite how that happened.
By the second day, things were really moving. I had kept Jesse up all through the previous night, listening to the John Denver tape Mom had forgotten to take out of the CD player, and doing the seductive Paula Cole dance at ungodly hours of the morning. Breakfast was the beginning of a continuous slew of Count Chocula, and Lucky Charms for every meal of the week. When we were done eating, we went to the chapel, were harassed by Barefoot Bill about being part of "The Rainbow," and were yelled out by Nicole to give her our money. :)
That afternoon was our first encounter with the legendary Leonardo DiCaprio look-alike. Of course, Kristen forgot what the word subtle meant, and screamed, "Look! There's that Leo look-alike!" while he was standing right behind us! As if to regain her composure, she calmy turns around and asks, "You don't think we're talking about you do you?" Thus began the stalking of the Leo look-alike. For days to come, we would intentionally walk by him singing "My Heart Will Go On," and make obviously loud comments such as, "What was your favorite part in 'Titanic'?" "Oh, probably at the end when Leonardo DiCaprio died!"
The stalking peaked on Wednesday evening at the dance. Kristen, Ryan Hudgins, and I went over to him and got his autograph. Of course, we couldn't actually keep it without looking a little on the weird side, so we ripped it up pretending to "fight over who could keep it." As a final word, Leo told us that his next movie was called "All Fans Die!"
There were so many more highlights to the week than just the harassment. :) There was the unforgetable game of "Honey If You Love Me, Will You Please Please Smile." It's a game where you go over to someone, seduce, make jokes, or anything else you can think of to do to this person to try to get them to laugh. Well, at first, Crysta seduced Natali by throwing herself onto her lap! Then there was Kristen seducing Jesse by ripping off the first layer of her shirt, and to continue the trend, threw herself onto his lap! Yes, this WAS a church camp! :)
Another memorable time was on Thursday afternoon when it was around 1000 degrees outside, and all of us were dressed up to go to communion. We decided that the chapel would be a good place to cool off... except for the fact that we weren't even supposed to BE in the chapel! So, we all snuck up to the balcony and just hung out. That's when one of the counselors came in downstairs. We were all trying to be as quiet as possible, but Annika kept snorting! It wasn't just a little snort either. These were the long drawnout snorts. To make matters worse, her keys were rattling in her hands! Before we could shut her up, the counselor yells from downstairs, "ARE YOU HAVING FUN UP THERE!?!"
Oh yeah... who could forget the "Cat's Claw?" I don't remember the full details of when this took place, but I definately remember what happened. It was me, Crysta, Annika, Jesse, and Kristen. We were all bored of just congragating in the girls' lobby, so we decided to explore. That's when we found it. It was a little resturaunt secluded by itself on the 2nd floor of the main gym. To our surprise, it was open! There were two or three counselors in there just talking, so they told us to come on in. Of course, within the first five minutes, Kristen and I spilled her whole bottle of Mountain Dew while we were fighting over a pretzel. After that was taken care of, we decided to actually watch the movie playing. "Adventures in Babysitting!" The whole week long, we went around chanting, "Oh Thor, Mighty God of Thunder!"
All-in-all, the entire week was one I doubt anyone of us will ever forget. If I had to pick one week in my entire life that stood out as my best, it would be that one. Summer Youth Celebration, 1998.
CARNIVAL GOERS
The story of the carnival goers also occured during the infamous week of SYC. It was Tuesday night, and we were all sitting in the chapel ready to go. Then, the counselors came on stage and announced that there was a carnival right after this. We were all kind of luke-warm ( what a pun... ) about the whole situation, but we decided to give it a try. But then, the counselors told us that we had no choice! We HAD to go to the carnival! Not only that, but it was $1.00 to get in! So in order to soften the blow, they ended with, "Go the carnival, have fun!"
It wasn't that big of a deal at the time, but over the months, it became one of the most widely used inside jokes in the group. To this day, when there's something bad that we don't feel like participating in, we always say to eachother, "Go to the carnival! Have fun!"