togetherness.

If there's one thing that I learn from being a part of Young Life, it's that having people who love you and accept you is one of the most important parts of life. It's having a family where you belong to them and they belong to you. It's living life together. This community teaches me that being part of something like that is important every time I show up and sit together and listen and laugh. I've found myself tearing up and feeling a deep sense of something recently about this. There's nothing more beautiful.

Some highlights from the past few weeks of the North Central #ylfam community:

1. The Great Banquet
      Every YL camp does a giant banquet toward the end of the kids' week at camp. Our group of seniors decided to have the dream, the whimsy, and the heart to put a banquet on for the other students at North Central. They brought salad, pasta, bread, and desserts to feed a small army of high school kids. They decorated the room with lights and tablecloths. And because of their hard work and willingness to actually live a life that showed God's love for others, over 70 kids sat at those tables and ate and talked and broke bread together. To quote my area director, Jon: "It was a holy moment; an experience where God was vividly present & the light of Jesus was more powerful than the darkness of this world; a reminder that our faith should inspire us to dream, to create, and to act, just as these Seniors did and are doing everyday."

2. Our YL Harlem Shake video 
      It's all the rage everywhere. Google it. It's crazy. Obviously we jumped on the band wagon. The making of one of these videos is hilarious. Every just watches as one weird person dances and then everyone goes crazy. Who doesn't want to have a dance party with all of your closet friends?

3. All City Club at the Indiana Pacers Game

      A lot of times I forget that other people do Young Life around the city, the country, and the world. Until we all come together and I see my other college friends doing the same thing: sitting with a kid in the crowd at club or awkwardly being on stage trying to make kids laugh. And high schoolers are the same everywhere too. It's a reminder that this is something bigger than just me and the girls I know. Big picture, people, big picture. 

4. The Breakfast Club
      I think if there's any sort of theme from the last few weeks, it has been food. I believe in food. I believe in meal questions. I believe in eating together. Hence, Saturday Morning cartoons club, the perfect combination of cereal, pajamas, and Rugrats.