All Hail Naugle Hall
Today, you are reading the post of a champion. Yes, that's right. My residence hall is the proud winner of the coveted Golden Torch, the trophy gleaned from winning the annual Res Hall Games here at Messiah. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I am SO NOT ATHLETIC. I suck at running, I sweat like nobody's business, I'm awkward and galumphy. Because of all these things, I was an active hater of all things sporty and field day related all throughout high school, except for Unified Sports, which were just low impact enough to tempt my fancy. Anyway, normally I would have dreaded something like the Res Hall games, but honestly, I knew next to nothing about what they were like and what we would be doing, so I wasn't able to really develop an opinion or any expectations surrounding them. All I knew was that every first year student in each Res Hall is supposed to participate, and we wanted to win. We met on the lawn of Naugle at 2:15 and decked ourselves out with blue paint, since blue is Naugle's color. Then we chanted some stuff as a huge group, like our Naugle tag line "Naugle, we ain't never been scared!" and "I believe that we will win!" and "Wit Wit Whatever! Naugle forever!" (a reference to one of our opponents, Witmer Residence). Once everyone was covered in paint, and one of the RAs gave a rousing pump up speech, we all headed down to Starry field. Actually, we ran part of the way. Can you believe that?? I ran, with other people, in a crowd, without complaining or being totally embarrassed. Once we got to the field, all three Res Halls chanted things to each other about how we were gonna win and beat them and whatnot. Then commenced the Games. It was broken up into two sections: the first part of the Games consisted of three "mini" games, all of which gave your group a time bonus if you won. The second part of the Games consisted of a long and involved relay race, which your hall got to start early if you'd won some of the time bonuses.
The first mini game we had to play was to spell out the name of our hall using our bodies. I was kinda part of the "U", but there were so many people that I was just kind of sitting awkwardly behind them, so I was like a little tumor on the "U". We didn't win that mini game, I think Bitner did. The next mini game was, thank goodness, a water game. We had to line up and pass buckets of water over our head down the line. The catch was they all had holes in them, so water kept pouring out on everyone the whole time. We won that game, and I was so glad for the water because it cooled me down and made me wet so it was like "Am I sweaty? Did I just get covered in water? You don't know." The final mini game was arguably the most awkward. We had to circle up first with our hall side (I'm side 2B), then our whole floor (floor 2), then our whole residence. Each time we made a circle, we had to stand heel to toe with the people in front and behind of us, and then, all at once, sit down, so that everyone was sitting on everyone else's laps. We won that game as well.
Because we won two of the mini games, and they were each worth a 15 second time bonus, we got a 30 second head start in the relay. In the relay we had to pass a hula hoop down the line while stepping through it with our bodies, then climb through the hula hoop and leap frog over everyone, then lay down on the ground in zipper formation (so like head to head) and pass a mattress down the line that had someone on top of it. Once the mattress got to the end of the line, we all had to run over to the creek and cheer on ten of our teammates as they pulled a rope attached to JH, our RD, who was sitting in an inner-tube, and get him past the rope bridge. Once JH was successfully pasts the bridge, and we knew we had won, we all rushed into the creek in our clothes and splashed around and got the golden torch, and got our picture taken as a group. It felt glorious and victorious to win.
Now I'm tired and my body aches. These first few days have been like boot camp with all the walking and physical activity I am SO not used to doing every day, but it's been good. I have no complaints so far. I'm gonna sleep good tonight.
-VaughnDL
The first mini game we had to play was to spell out the name of our hall using our bodies. I was kinda part of the "U", but there were so many people that I was just kind of sitting awkwardly behind them, so I was like a little tumor on the "U". We didn't win that mini game, I think Bitner did. The next mini game was, thank goodness, a water game. We had to line up and pass buckets of water over our head down the line. The catch was they all had holes in them, so water kept pouring out on everyone the whole time. We won that game, and I was so glad for the water because it cooled me down and made me wet so it was like "Am I sweaty? Did I just get covered in water? You don't know." The final mini game was arguably the most awkward. We had to circle up first with our hall side (I'm side 2B), then our whole floor (floor 2), then our whole residence. Each time we made a circle, we had to stand heel to toe with the people in front and behind of us, and then, all at once, sit down, so that everyone was sitting on everyone else's laps. We won that game as well.
Because we won two of the mini games, and they were each worth a 15 second time bonus, we got a 30 second head start in the relay. In the relay we had to pass a hula hoop down the line while stepping through it with our bodies, then climb through the hula hoop and leap frog over everyone, then lay down on the ground in zipper formation (so like head to head) and pass a mattress down the line that had someone on top of it. Once the mattress got to the end of the line, we all had to run over to the creek and cheer on ten of our teammates as they pulled a rope attached to JH, our RD, who was sitting in an inner-tube, and get him past the rope bridge. Once JH was successfully pasts the bridge, and we knew we had won, we all rushed into the creek in our clothes and splashed around and got the golden torch, and got our picture taken as a group. It felt glorious and victorious to win.
Now I'm tired and my body aches. These first few days have been like boot camp with all the walking and physical activity I am SO not used to doing every day, but it's been good. I have no complaints so far. I'm gonna sleep good tonight.
-VaughnDL
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