Feels Like Home To Me...

Welcome back, Beavers!
I’ve been here for a few weeks for Hall Director and Resident Advisor training, but students have just been here for about a week. The first week of classes and coming back to the residence hall living has been great! Everyone is feeling really busy as meetings are getting scheduled and class syllabi are being handed out. As everyone works on getting into a routine the overwhelming feelings will subside and the rhythm of life in Bluffton will fall into place.
The excitement of the first few weeks was the flood that hit this area. The campus was under water when we woke up on August 21st. The Bluffton campus pulled together and was a refugee site for evacuees off of the highway and our brilliant hall chaplains kept people in good spirits while the football players put sand bags around our flooded science center. The water went down on our campus by the next day and people went on with retreats and meetings and preparations for class. The surrounding communities are still struggling a lot to rebuild their lives and Bluffton is working to support them in whatever ways we can.
This weekend was great and so much fun for the first full weekend on campus with everyone here. Friday night MCB had Bob’s Place all decorated and ready to watch “Pirates of the Caribbean.” We had a great time with a lot of people just hanging out and watching a great movie. On Saturday we all went to the Beaver football game and cheered on the Beavers. Saturday night me and a lot of my friends went over to another residence hall to play games with Scott and some of the other guys from that hall. We spent hours laughing and playing cards and having a good time. After that we just hung out and talked for awhile, which is always a good time. On Sunday me and Scott and our friend Eric went to church in a nearby town then we spent the day just hanging out and watching movies and enjoying awesome Sunday conversation. Sunday night I just hung out with the girls and Scott and Eric came over and we had a great time just laughing and hanging out. This weekend was totally amazing and full of great conversations with some absolutely wonderful people. I just can’t believe I’m a senior, and realizing that has made my relationships even more important to me than they already were. I am coming to the realization that this is the last year I will be able to stay up until 2am with my best friends living next door, so I’m working on soaking that up as much as I can.
Until next time friends,
Mary

pictures: our campus under water from the flood and me & scott at the football game :)