Adventures in Being Social

It's rare that I find myself actually being actively social on a Friday night, but last night I decided to chart out into this unknown territory and go to a bonfire some friends of mine were throwing on the beach. I roped my good friend Elizabeth into going with me since I'm not very good with big groups of people, and generally prefer one on one interactions. Ended up riding with this BYU-H alumni in the Air Force who was very nice and had to carry this super heavy pallet up and down hills for what seemed like forever until finally we could decide on a spot on the beach that was decent for a fire.

While they set up camp, Elizabeth and I tried to be as out of the way as possible by taking a stroll down the beach and catching up on news that had happened over Winter break. Ran into some other bonfire people down the beach who kindly offered us a beer, to which we declined and soon headed back at the eery feeling their offering left us. Got back and the fire was almost made, laid down a little beach towel and continued talking about a variety of issues revolving around sexuality, womens' reproductive rights, and television programs. After being as anti social as possible in such a large group of people we integrated into the larger campfire atmosphere.

Ended up sitting next to this boy who I've known informally through the grape vine for about a year now through Arab club, but who also happens to be in my English class. I'd always kind of written him off as one of those peter-priesthood really obnoxiously christian boys because of his optimistic boyish demeanor and nicely pressed button up shirts. But as soon as we got talking I was just blown away at how smart, open-minded, and well spoken this boy was. Naturally, he also happens to be in the ICS and Peacebuilding programs same as me, which accounted for a lot of contributing to his worldview for sure. We talked about politics, social issues, life goals, and a myriad of other things that seemed to effortless intertwine to make a very well rounded and natural conversation. The man isn't perfect, but any man who's willing to casually talk about the feminist literature he's reading for fun while teaching himself Arabic and taking classes in Conflict Resolution is good in my book.

So he was a rather nice surprise to the evening, making my adventures in being social a success yesterday. Excited for the new season of SNL to come on tonight, coupled with what I'm sure will be a riveting game of Settlers of Catan with the ladies. Ftw.