It's been years since I last had a group of people that I spent an inordinate amount of time with. In fact, I can only think of one group in my past that I've had the honour of being a member of, and that was the people in the picture above in the summer of 2009. Alex, Carly, Amanda, Allyssa and I were the main members. This was the summer right before heading off to PRBI for the fall. We came together in the middle of summer and spent a huge amount of our free time at camp together. We even met up in Calgary that December for a "family" Christmas dinner. After that dinner cracks started to develop in the group, and while we are all still friends we are nowhere near as close as we were during that summer.
Since then I have gone nearly 2 years without really having a gang. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just is. However, now I am part of a group once again. We call ourselves "jam" and are comprised of Andrea, Mike, Matthew, Jessica and myself.
Ever since I returned from Africa, we have spent countless hours together - mostly as a gang but also as portions of the group. We've spent days together at two tables in the Dining Hall doing homework, playing countless games of foosball, watching movies, hitting up Grande Prairie and so on. Last weekend before watching "It's a Wonderful Life" we had a Value Village gift exchange where we each bought something for one other in the group, from randomly selected names. It will be difficult for me to receive a more memorable present than the light purple cupcake pajamas I received from Andrea. There are already a ridiculous number of inside jokes that are often triggered by a single word. Last night Andrea, Mike and I pulled off an all-nighter in Grande Prairie - eating pizza, listening to Christmas music, checking out Christmas lights and visiting Wal-Mart. We intentionally spend a lot of time together - not monopolizing each other's time, but at the same time purposefully ensuring that we maintain a lot of time with the other 4 members of jam.
This, along with some work that God has been doing on my mind has served to turn my semester from being the worst one yet to one containing my favourite memories of PRBI. How one thing can completely change my perception of the semester. There have been other minor changes between the pre-Africa and post-Africa times but only very minor ones. This has been the difference. And what a difference it has been.
To be purposefully building these deeper friendships with specific people in a safe environment has been the perfect thing for me to heal from the pain of the opening half of the semester and has been exactly what I have needed so far as social interaction is concerned. It's incredible that 4 of my favourite people on campus would also happen to enjoy hanging out with each other. I know that we are not going to be together forever, might not even be together for a whole lot longer, but I'm sure going to enjoy it while I have it. Praise God!
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