This weekend, I went to Circle K’s Fall Training Conference. Upon deep personal reflection I have to come to the realization that is one of the best conferences I have been to in my life.
Ari, the club president, drove me, Ally, and Whitney all the way to Sonora, California (roughly an 8 hour car ride), and on the way we witnessed freeways, farms, lots of cows, and narrow roads. Aside from naps, we played 10 fingers, played card games, ate a ton of snacks, practiced the skit and cheers, and had several pit stops (including a convenient lunch stop at In&Out). Seeing so many cows along the way eventually initiated the creation of a new cheer that went “FTC! FTC! FTC! Moo.” Eventually after departing 10am, we reached our destination by 6:30pm.
We checked in, getting our program guides as well as our FTC t-shirts (which I have yet to wear anywhere). We bumped into random persons, and chatted briefly before moving the girls’ luggage into their respective cabins. Eventually 2 of the other 4 cars showed up, Alan’s (Teresa, Natalie, Jennifer, & Irwin), and Kasey’s (Junie, Celina, and Linda). When they came, we unloaded all the cars, the guys eventually migrating with Teresa and Jennifer to our cabins, located in Prospective Point. We took a detour and went the wrong way, entering a dark forest with minimal flashlight. Slowly but surely, reflections of Slenderman were echoed within my head. We found our way out eventually, after almost falling from the cliffs (Teresa and Alan were wearing flip flops….). Eventually we all reached our cabins, which had about 10 beds in one room. It was strikingly similar in resemblance to the exact same bunk beds I witnessed in Iowa last December-January. It was much better than the girls which had roughly 30-40 beds in one cabin. Good riddance.
We then proceeded to the opening session at 9pm before ultimately opting to skip the first of two “mandatory” workshops. Instead, we all went in a circle and panicked over skit practice and the other two cars not reaching the gate before midnight. We eventually found out it was merely just a rumor that people would go close the gate to the mountain at midnight, which eased the tensions in our immediate group. We watched Alan and Kasey practice their First Aid presentations before actually going to the physical room to watch them do it. The night winded down a little with everyone retreating to the female cabins. We ate snacks, had a short-lived noodle party, and had some intriguing conversations before the guys (me, Alan, & Irwin) all proceeded back to our cabins. I immediately went to asleep, awoken by the sounds of Karl, Irving, Christian, & Andy walking in. They had successfully arrived by 2:30am, which meant Judy’s car (Cari, Karl, & Andy), and Katie’s Car (April, Irving, Christian, & Ann) were all here, marking the official starting point by which CSUF Circle K was ready to take over and dominate the Fall Training conference.
Day 2 felt like an extremely LONGGGGGGGGG day. I have a theory since we were up in the mountains and it was higher in elevation, time seemingly traveled slowly not only in our heads, but in the physical space we all live in. I rushed to the showers at 6am, after getting roughly 2 hours of sleep (I wasn’t able to fall asleep on the terrible bunks until 4am). I took a quick shower in the public restrooms, before proceeding to Breakfast. Our club was divided into groups called “Day Break” and “Midnight”, giving designated eating times contingent on which group you were in. I got Day Break, and the group “Alice”, which meant I sat with a random assortment of nice people from a variety of different schools. After a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and potatoes we migrated to the grassy area where we proceeded in the first of 3 “wondergames”. While waiting for the referees to come up to us to play a minute long game, we played a ton of icebreakers with the group, which were simultaneously entertaining and exhausting. Eventually we played charades for the wondergames, me staying so far behind in line that the timer ran out before I was even able to act out my word, which was “serenade”.
Eventually we all rushed to the General session where I abandoned the “Alice” team to sit with my fellow CSUF-mates. After doing a ton of club and division cheers (Magic Kingdom), we watched a relatively entertaining slideshow (I love singing to Good Time by Owl City), as well as a cute Bruno Mars Medley sung to everyone. When time was up, it was time for the Saturday workshop sessions to begin.
Session 1: District Service Initiative: I was able to learn about the “Living Healthy, Living Life” which was rather informative, but a bit disorganized. It took roughly 30 minutes for the presenters to collect slips of paper from randomly assigned groups and then another 15 minutes to play a game using it (where the instructions were both vague and frustrating at the same time).
Session 2: Dealing with Stress: Wherever Wen Soon was from, he is amazing. This was by far my favorite session of the day, and if you ask April, Christian, Katie, and Irving you would know why. The presenter was absolutely hilarious as he acted out skits on his own, folded a balloon heart and popped it in front of the girl, and even gave up as minute of mediation while he played soothing music for all of it. He got a “We are proud of you” cheer at the end of his presentation because he was so good (a repeating trend we’d see again for the rest of the conference). Absolutely hilarious. Absolutely entertaining. Absolutely educational. <24.
Then, it was time for lunch. Daybreak panicked as we consumed our salads and chicken strips in record time, going out to the field all to realize we weren’t “legally allowed” to practice the skit practice together. Because the club was separated into two different time periods for lunch, only one group was allowed to practice at a time while the other was busy playing “Wondergames”. Eventually we had a quick 20 minute session that overlapped that allowed us to legally practice, and I opted to do that, missing the second Wondergame which was tug of war. I practiced running across the stage reciting the cues to the audience of scene changes, while Karl reminded me of what the dance number looked like. It still was extremely frustrating having to rush through practice like that, but our club magically did it thanks to the help of our Spirit and Social Chairs.
Lunch ended, and thus it was back to the sessions.
Session 3: CKI101. I learned quite a great deal from this presentation, the ending resulting in a quick game of Jeopardy with the audience (where April, Ann, & Whitney) answered a majority of the questions. G double O D J O B good job good job. I learned much too, aside from seeing the people behind me take naps. It’s understandable though, because a majority of the people that came arrived after 11pm the previous day….
Session 4: Kiwanias Family Relations. After a brief rest outside with hot chocolate and socializing with our club, we went back in for a session on the relations between the different organizations within Kiwanis (For Kids, middle schooler’s, teenagers, college students, young professionals, and adults). It was educational but at the same time I was zoning out quite a bit, especially after witnessing the people behind me completely fall asleep and me being jealous. Jealously really does turn saints into the sea.
Session 5: Chairing an Event/Event Planning: After going to the new member mixer for 2 minutes with Andy, we both realized it wasn’t exactly what it advertised itself to be. We didn’t feel bad later after realizing all the new members from CSUF abandoned it soon after as well. Instead, we went to chairing an event with our very own Teresa and Natalie. We played a quick icebreaker that somehow intertwined evolution with rock paper scissors, before getting taught on how to effectively plan an event. We then brainstormed with our larger group on planning of different events from fundraisers, to socials, to service projects.
Session 6: Lie to Me: After briefly eating candy distributed out in session 5, I was thoroughly hyper, and subsequently I was joking around with a newly made friend named Jackie from Csu dominguez hills. The session exposed underlying ways to tell whether a person is either being truthful and lying. I volunteered at the beginning with another girl from another school, with the presenter telling me to only answer questions truthfully and for the other girl to only by lying. Subsequently, the presenter asked questions to both of us, and my responses are as listed:
1. What is your favorite food? Phil’s BBQ.
2. What is your favorite artist? Glee. Because Glee is an inspirational show about underdogs.
3. What do you like to do in your spare time? Nothing. I’m kind of a loner. Well actually, I do like to blog.
4. What is your favorite color and why? White, because it is one of the colors on the American flag.
Well, obviously I was being truthful. The audience was asked to say whether I was being truthful or not, and in all seriousness it was about 50/50. Although, a majority of the people that said I was being truthful were people from CSUF who already knew me (Namely Ann, Christian, Natalie, Teresa, Irwin, & Karl). The remaining session mostly involved me and Karl taking random notes while teasing Jackie from CSU Dominique Hills about her school’s “seeds” necklace decoration, because they resembled drugs.
With the end of the workshops came dinner, and I was finally able to sit with my fellow CSUF club members for a well fed meal of lasagna, more salad, and bread. It was only new members though, as we had to practice for the new member rehearsal immediately after. (New members being me, April, Alan, Andy, Jennifer, Irwin, Karl, Whitney, Celina, & Christian). We practiced how to line up at new member rehearsal, and then carried out said tasks during the general session immediately following, where we went up to receive both a certificate and a pin. We also had a ceremony of lights, where glow sticks were given out and we moved them up in the air when the time was announced by Jonathan Cao (who spoke during the ceremony). It was rather inspirational to see everyone united under the same initiation process, and kind of reminded me of rituals often practiced in fraternities. The ending cheer from the returning members which said “One of us! One of us! One of us!” was both simultaneously creepy yet hilarious.
Immediately after, with no time in between, we all rushed on over to the campfire skits where Fullerton was the first school to go. I did my job effectively carrying two signs across the stage, only struggling in the dance that happened immediately following the Wall-E-Alice in Wonderland skit. I recall messing up specifically in the last 15 seconds of the dance, only because things happened so fast and we didn’t have enough time to practice everything. When the skits were over Fullerton sat back and watched the rest of the skits, which were all simultaneously entertaining and engaging. I really like UCI’s because they had high school musical’s “we’re all in this together” in it and UCR’s because of their incorporation of Men in Black, and not to mention poetry.
With the guys going back to change, me, Christian, Andy, and Karl all prepared for the final dance of the night, where we danced to random songs presented by a rather terrible DJ (who didn’t know how to transition music at all). At least, they played a couple of good songs such as “Without you”, “Good Time”, “Starships”, and “Some Nights”. But I am not the dancing type, and have pretty awkward moments at time. I also consumed roughly 3 bottles of water due to the high level of dehydration from sweating all over the place. Which will truly make the upcoming Boat Cruise an adventure to be told…. The night ended with all of us going back to cabins and “sleeping”. In all reality, the guys and I engaged in some rather delightful “pillowtalk” which intertwined gossip, philosophy, as well as the ultimate future of our involvement within the terrific organization.
The night ended, and though the next day involved a time shift to daylight savings time, it wasn’t reflected in the cabins. In fact, we all woke up debating whether it was 5am or 6am. After 20 minutes, we quickly realized it was 7am, and rushed to shower. We immediately got breakfast at 8am, where I asked the girls what forms of gossip they engaged in. Apparently they all just knocked out after the dance, which I find kind of hard to believe…..
Closing sessions were entertaining, but I was disappointed our club t-shirt didn’t get a reward. It was definitely better than a majority of the designs that placed, showing the subjective reasoning involved within the Kiwaniasn that chose the “Lego t-shirt” as the best. The videos were amazing though, as well as the musical performance by the DCON Committee (Go Teresa, Ann, & Ally! :)) The presentation of awards often elicited the “we are proud of you” cheer while the divisions simultaneously showed their spirit through club and divisional cheers.
With the ending of FTC, I have come to the realization that Circle K is much better than I previously have given it credit for. In another life, I would probably see Circle K as merely a community “service” organization. But, as I have learned from this weekend, it is more than that. It is about fellowship, and it is simultaneously about leadership. Seeing all the people around me eager to help change the world, one service project, and one leadership initiative at the time is rather enlightening, after witnessing the disgusting political realm in which we live earlier this year. I do think my libertarian philosophies largely overlap with Circle K, showing that the realization of mankind’s potential can be good, if given the opportunity.
On the way back Ari’s car also caravaned with Katie’s (Now having just Ann, Christian, and April). On the way we communicated through walkie talkies, singing, talking, making animal noises, and mostly just messing around with one another. I found it rather ironic that our car was playing One Direction music while Katie’s car was playing Glee music. What a crazy role reversal.
If the previous few paragraphs were tldr; here’s a brief summary. FTC was fun. I learned about Circle K’s full potential. It’s kind of like a Frat, except instead of being revolved around partying, it is more about service, leadership, and fellowship. The workshops were hit or miss, but that might have been because I chose to go the wrong ones. In the end, I remain in Circle K because I love doing community service, and I love doing it with people I enjoy being around. Everyone in CSUF Circle K, everyone in Magic Kingdom, and every single person I met at FTC is amazing, and that will be the primary reason why my first Fall Training Conference was ultimately a success.
