Yesterday, someone tagged one of my friends to let him know that he had made it onto the Berea College website, but when I clicked the banner to open the full page of the article, I was pleasantly surprised to find this. This picture was taken at Papaleno’s (our little hometown family-owned pizza palace) during Homecoming with pretty much some of the greatest Bereans that have ever lived. Mr. Eagle Scout to my right (Brian Easterday) is married to Leanna, directly to my left (who I used to work with but is now in the top 2% of sales for Mary Kay in only 2 years — which is a testament not only of her hard work but also of her tremendous character and her ability to make others feel valued and loved). I met Lydia Patton, on the far left while working in our service program CELTS (the Center for Excellence and learning through service). Lydia worked for Berea Buddies, a youth mentorship program and I worked for HEAL as an environmental service learning educator. The one thing I recall that we all had in common was that we all shared an incredible love for the outdoors. Lydia and Brian recurrently took on roles as counselors and facilitators at Confrontation Point ministries summer camp. I was pretty limited to what I could do because of my lack of transportation, so did a lot of hobby excursions into the college forests, or signed up for contemplative writing or primitive skills programs.
I even remember a day during mid terms when Brian got so antsy about not being able to go outside, that he broke down and set up a mini camping stove out in the middle of the quad and made himself a pot of raumen noodles while he slack lined. One of my favorite memories of this group was in the spring when they all decided to break their previous record of four hammocks stacked between two trees by stringing up 5 or more hammocks between the same two trees on the quad. Rumor has it they were able to achieve 7, but I wasn’t around to see that to confirm. But I have seen them do at least five.
Grace In Grit 