Plaza Full of People

On Thursday the Plaza was packed.  After many Thursdays of sitting in the rotunda of the DSU, shivering in the cold, I have finally been able to return to the Plaza the past two weeks.  This Thursday was the perfect day for sitting outside to pray.  Clear and dry, 73 degrees, gauzy white con trail lines crisscrossed the deep blue sky, while a gentle breeze with only hint of pollen in it kept the temperature comfortable.  Many things converged on the Plaza at lunch that day.  Of course I was there with the prayer station, and I was dressed in a green fleece for St. Patrick's Day.  It was also CNU day.  Last year they had CNU day during Spring Break, a choice I didn't understand.  I remember wearing my CNU sweatshirt to SpiritWorks and wondering why you'd choose a day when the students weren't around.  This year they chose St. Patrick's Day and made special green CNU shirts.  One student commented that it seemed like a good idea to combine the two but that they were just too far apart.  He had decided to commemorate neither, choosing to celebrate the weather instead, with an Oxford button down and shorts.

In honor of CNU day, there was a flash party on the Great Lawn during lunch.  Music blasted from
speakers, while crowds of students dressed in either green or CNU blue gathered around the on the lawn.  I was told that it was a dance party, but I did not detect much dancing going on.  The only song I recognized was the "Cupid Shuffle," that we had learned to dance to at SpiritWorks a couple of years ago.  No, I did not get up to dance.  I held onto my dignity by maintaining that my presence at the prayer station was more needed than any unfortunate dance moves I might make.  Watching this clergy person "break it down" might have brought some amusement but probably only embarrassment on my behalf.  The dance party ended with a huge group photo on the steps of Christopher Newport Hall, the new administration building.  I wish I had made it over to capture the picture, but at the time I was enjoying good conversation with students who were choosing not to participate.

In addition to CNU day and St. Patrick's Day, it was also the beginning of Greek week.  I had been watching members of sororities and fraternities carrying out life-sized wood carvings of their Greek letters and setting them up in the Plaza.  I tucked the prayer station even closer to one of the gigantic topiary pots so that I wouldn't be in the way of the great Greek assembly.  After the group photo, the crowd of students migrated to the Plaza to start Greek week with a friendly competition.

As an observer I always have to piece these rituals together and try to figure out what's going on.  It looked like the Greeks were organized into teams:  Team 1, Team 2, Blue Team, Green Team, etc.  The first event was some sort of chant/cheer competition.  Because I was sitting and they were standing I couldn't see everything that was going on, but I could hear the cheers.  It looked like most of the students were reading their cheers from their phones, and some of them were hard to hear.  To my left was the green team.  As far as I could tell they were the loudest, and the most energetic, dancing to their chant and jumping up and down.  More of them seemed to know the words of their chant.  I decided that I would vote for them.  (Not that anyone asked me.)  I found out later that they won that portion of the contest.

Next came an event that I didn't understand.  From my vantage point it looked like a few students were gathered in the middle of the circle and that they had small boxes tied around their waist, positioned on their butts.  I thought the object was to dance until the box fell off, but when I asked a student later, he told me it was called, Minute to Win It.  The boxes were tissue boxes filled with ping pong balls, and the goal was to shake all the ping pong balls out of the box.  I couldn't determine who won that one, but it sure looked like they were having fun.

Surprisingly enough, even in the midst of all the chaos, I still had some good conversations and prayer time with students.  Last week had been quiet at the prayer station - I think they had to get used to me being out there again.  I know a lot of seniors this year, and I'm excited to hear about their plans for the future.  They're winding down, trying to stay present where they are and especially enjoy the good company of their community while also looking ahead to what comes next.  Not a bad place to be.