NSO: beyond the free stuff.

As mentioned earlier, last week I was a part of NSO for freshmen at BYU. My good friend Madi and I volunteered because we wanted free t-shirts and ice cream. We did indeed get our freebies (and many more beyond those, including a free planner that is currently rocking my socks off and some excellent potato salad), but my honest-to-goodness favorite part was working with the kids in our group. 

We really had a stellar group, and I'm not saying that because I'm biased. (Well, I might be a tad biased, but I don't know of any other groups that still had more than half their group for the whole second day of activities!!) Lots of kids sluff NSO because it's optional and exhausting. However, we happened to have a bunch of kids who really did want to learn how to succeed in their first year here, so they were enthusiastic about coming to activities  and asking questions and making new friends and such. At my own NSO, I thought I knew it all and I was not very friendly, so what an example they were to me! I think that's my favorite part of any form of leadership: the chance to work with and learn from really awesome people. We have awesome people at my school and I love it.

Anyways, the following are some pictures of a few activities.

We made paper airplanes to symbolize goals and flew them around the Marriott center:

My success story: it flew flawlessly all the way to the blue chairs in the background.

Madi's, um, success story.

We walked around campus:

We witnessed a lovely sunset from the stadium, and fireworks, and another lovely sunset from the Tanner building lot:

We watched a lot of freshmen dance in really large circles:

And we ate free ice cream and celebrated free t-shirts:

It was nice to be reminded before jumping back into my school routine of the privilege it is to be at BYU and the years of sacrifice that have led to what we have access to today. I remember feeling the significance of getting a BYU education in NSO devotional last year, a moment which started my habit of saying a little prayer of thanks every day for the chance to be at this school. That habit has remained, but the significance was lost somewhere between then and now. Last weekend, I found it again, and I am just ever so grateful for the opportunities I have by being here, now. Here's to another year of spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, character building experiences that will lead to lifelong learning and service!