“Mandatory” isn’t often met with grins and nods. More often than not, it’s received with groans and mumbled (or sometimes brazenly loud) complaints.
August 25th wasn’t much different. After all, who wants to spend three hours on a Saturday evening with seventeen strangers?
But, as our professor Amaris Ketcham had instructed, one by one we arrived at the Honors Forum to partake in the secret initiations required to be a Scribendi staff member. And one by one, we began to smile.
As we opened up about what made us decide to apply for a staff position, we learned that while we may come from different backgrounds—and different parts of the U.S.!—we share the common goal of wanting to make Scribendi a success. We each have skills and experiences that we can apply to the magazine to make it stronger, and a desire to see it through to publication. While we held the purple string that “bound” us together (thank you, Dr. Donovan), we saw how plucking the yarn affected everyone. Teamwork means picking up where someone’s fallen through the cracks (and worriedly picking them up, dusting them off, and making sure they’re okay).
And, of course, it didn’t hurt that we had to tell our most embarrassing story while we were introducing ourselves (which made everything that followed that much easier to handle).
After a series of games bent on helping us nail down each other’s’ names (which included but were not limited to yelling, whispering, wild hand motions, intense eye contact, and throwing beanie babies at one another), we played the human knot game. I’m pretty sure we’re the only group ever who created three entirely different circles and trapped each circle with two unbreakable links (at least, until Danielle let us break one and then the second link). But hey, at least we weren’t the worst!
And finally, our bellies full of Domino’s and Garcia’s, we played a D.O.P.E. game. I know what you’re thinking… and you’re close. After a brief questionnaire, we were sorted into doves, owls, peacocks, or eagles depending on our personality type. We learned about the strengths and weaknesses of each group, and what our most comfortable problem-solving and work styles are.
Most importantly, we had fun. We learned about the each other, and set the groundwork for the duration of this year.
Special thanks to Danielle Gilliam, for helping the Scribendi staff with another team building workshop.