Day 6 of the trip has been both nostalgic and exciting. Today was a half-day on the site, so we spent our time putting up the second floor’s exterior walls. It was amazing to see how much better each of us has gotten at nailing! In contrast to the first day, we built and put up these walls at a much faster pace. As such, we have dubbed ourselves experts at construction, and are quite confident that we now have the skillset to build our own houses. We finished this last day of working on the house with a little surprise show we prepared last night. First, a little background information. Last night, our group concocted a brilliant way to say “thank you” and “goodbye (for now)” to the members of the Oak Harbor Habitat for Humanity community that have made our trip so special. We sifted through many different plans, one of which was Katie’s suggestion that we walk in to the Backstreet Boys and do star jumps. After much deliberating, we settled on a genius plan. So, this morning we asked if the staff would mind taking a group photo with us. The first one we took was an actual photo, but the next time Anthony went to take another, he actually turned on the recorder so that we could capture the moment. At this cue, we joined hands and surrounded the staff. We then proceeded to sing a song that Allie taught us. It goes:
“Thank you, thank you, I really want to thank you!”
“T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U. Thanks. Da duh dun.”
To top the performance off, each of us turned a circle in place and followed it off with a group hug. Our choreographed ritual was well received, or at least they pretended that they liked it.
We spent the latter half of the day at Deception Pass, where we went on a super awesome hike that Mark recommended. At the top of the trail, we had a peaceful moment during which we all sat in silence and enjoyed the sounds of Mother Nature. Although this was not the last thing we would do on Day 6, it really summed up our trip’s progression. Starting having known close to nothing about each of our “teammates,” I now cannot imagine life without each of the goofy characters that have made up Collegiate Challenge 2015.
-Parkes Kendrick
