Walking into a room with eleven complete strangers is quite an intimidating ordeal, but when those eleven strangers become good friends after only, literally, a few hours together, it is mind-blowing!! While waiting to begin the Ropes Course on the beautiful Furman campus on the first day, we all timidly made small talk and tried to find out a little about each other; however, after several Ropes Course challenges we were quickly hugging and cheering each other on. Even more rewarding was the game of tag we played later in the night. We set off with no real intentions when beginning the game, just a way to get some energy out, but it was the best bonding experience I've ever had! By the end of a 30-minute game of Toilet Tag we were exhausted, covered in sweat, but had formed unbreakable bonds! Another favorite game of this 2011-2012 EPL group is Mafia, and let me just say I am undisputedly the Mafia Queen! After just a few rounds of the game, we were all laughing, smiling, screaming and having a great time.
However, despite our pool party at the President of Furman's house, EPL is not just all fun and games. During the past few days, we have been challenged by truly enlightening and inspiring experiences. Each professor who has spoken with us has brought us a different perspective and great insight to college education and exposed us to many of the problems our society faces, from dysfunctional government to poverty around the world. The many influential people we have met, including two members of Greenville City Council and former Governor Riley, are such inspiring and wonderful people, especially to a Greenville, South Carolina native like me! However, by far my favorite experience thus far was our visit to the Frazee Dream Center, a Summer Camp/School and After-School program for underprivilieged children in the Downtown area. The Frazee Center focuses on literacy, a cause very important to me, and reading to the children at the center was a brilliant experience and one which I will be doing again soon! EPL has been an awesome experience, and it's only Wednesday!!
Oh, by the way, Keda and Reece (our counselors) are pretty cooly fabulously awesome!!! (They paid me to say that :) Haha)
Posted by Ana Gibson :)
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