So well said Byron…. Love this! I see your desperate angst in the littles I work with every day. So badly wanting acceptance and friendship. My heart breaks for them and it broke for 14 year old Byron. But look at you now! You give me hope for all the unconnected kids of the world. I’ll be in the desert at the end of March, should you want to dare pull out that DVD… just sayin’ 😘
Also, my youth group memories are sooooo lame. All I remember is doing Cagney/Lacey knocks on peoples door after curfew. I wish you would have been our leader!
Aw friend. That makes my day! Can't wait to see you soon. but CRITICALLY what is a cagney/lacey knock?! I loved that show as a kid (I had no idea what was happening but have always been drawn to strong women )
I was in a Christian school from preschool through the eighth grade. The little queer kid that felt very alone. Too smart, too kind to be liked. Named student of the year three times, Christian of the year once. I wanted to fit in and just couldn’t. It wasn’t until I went to the public high school and discovered cheerleading/dance that I found home. Those pre high school years are still so cringe for me from how imperious I was about my academic success because it wasn’t until something I could hold over those other kids, even though they couldn’t care less.
Most of us have awkward, lonely times in life (mine was 6th grade) but we grow stronger and develop empathy from going through it. You learned great leadership skills from leading the youth group and, more importantly, you are now beloved by many!
Amazing! I became born again for about four seconds in 8th grade, speaking in tongues and highlighting my Bible. I realized all I really wanted was to go on the Youth Group ski trip with Brad Beyersdorf and wasn’t truly down with the whole “this is the only way” part so
I was raised Mormon and when I was about 14-15 years old, I remember my local church community created an epic youth group outing that was veiled in mystery. They gathered together all four local ‘wards’ (congregations based on neighborhood) and told all of our parents to drop us off at the church at 4 PM on Friday afternoon with a sleeping bag, a journal and a change of clothing. That was the only information shared.
When we arrived, they randomly sorted us so that we suddenly found ourselves with other local youth that we likely didn’t really know yet.
After 20 minutes of introducing ourselves, we were invited to pick a nickname for the weekend and before I could come up with my own, somebody in my group shouted that my name should be ‘flower child’! (I was hoping to pick the name ‘Mirage’ - inspired by a handsome 22 year old Canadian ecology teacher that taught my 5th grade class, and whom I had felt completely mesmerized by).
We were loaded up into minivans, and they drove us about two hours north of our town and then pulled over on the side of the highway, in the dark, and told us that our adventure began then.
They handed us a compass, a glow stick and an aluminum pie tin to attach the glow stick underneath to create a terrible light source, and then handed us some coordinates and told us we needed to find our way to the camp in the woods. They then drove off… 🥴
It took us about 90 minutes to find our way, and when we finally arrived, terrified and perturbed, we found out that two other groups never arrived and were lost in the woods. It took the adults another two hours to find them and get them safely back.
The next morning, we woke up hungry and grumpy and were told before we could eat breakfast we had to hand carve our own wooden spoon that we would use as our only utensil for the remainder of the weekend.
The supposed ‘cherry on top’ for the weekend was on Sunday - after they had broken down all of our defenses - we would have a chance to stand up and bear our testimony of the truthfulness of our church. I remember all of the youth group girls crying with a wild abandon as they professed their certainty of the truthfulness of our church, whereas the boys would either opt out entirely or keep it super macho. When it was my turn, I opted for the hot tears and passionate exclamations, but knew I was putting on a show to rival the girls. Turns out hungry, tired kids will gladly exclaim just about anything if they get to return home from a mystery outing to the woods. 😜
So well said Byron…. Love this! I see your desperate angst in the littles I work with every day. So badly wanting acceptance and friendship. My heart breaks for them and it broke for 14 year old Byron. But look at you now! You give me hope for all the unconnected kids of the world. I’ll be in the desert at the end of March, should you want to dare pull out that DVD… just sayin’ 😘
Also, my youth group memories are sooooo lame. All I remember is doing Cagney/Lacey knocks on peoples door after curfew. I wish you would have been our leader!
Aw friend. That makes my day! Can't wait to see you soon. but CRITICALLY what is a cagney/lacey knock?! I loved that show as a kid (I had no idea what was happening but have always been drawn to strong women )
I was in a Christian school from preschool through the eighth grade. The little queer kid that felt very alone. Too smart, too kind to be liked. Named student of the year three times, Christian of the year once. I wanted to fit in and just couldn’t. It wasn’t until I went to the public high school and discovered cheerleading/dance that I found home. Those pre high school years are still so cringe for me from how imperious I was about my academic success because it wasn’t until something I could hold over those other kids, even though they couldn’t care less.
Wow this is epic! Do you have amazing pics?
Buried in a memory box somewhere
Most of us have awkward, lonely times in life (mine was 6th grade) but we grow stronger and develop empathy from going through it. You learned great leadership skills from leading the youth group and, more importantly, you are now beloved by many!
Aw thanks for the love. I still think of those guys all the time. Mostly I think I was the villain 😬
I have video somewhere of that last speech and I’m still too embarrassed to watch it. It’s been decades now haha
I love the chapbook idea. Kind of like a zine?
Elizabeth yes kinda! my god I bought paper and a stapler and I can’t wait to show you haha
Amazing! I became born again for about four seconds in 8th grade, speaking in tongues and highlighting my Bible. I realized all I really wanted was to go on the Youth Group ski trip with Brad Beyersdorf and wasn’t truly down with the whole “this is the only way” part so
I abandoned ship.
HAHAHAHAHA THIS MAKES MY DAY. God. Brad. What became of him?
Love this, and you! ❤️
Love you back! We would have been incredible youth group co-presidents I believe!
I was raised Mormon and when I was about 14-15 years old, I remember my local church community created an epic youth group outing that was veiled in mystery. They gathered together all four local ‘wards’ (congregations based on neighborhood) and told all of our parents to drop us off at the church at 4 PM on Friday afternoon with a sleeping bag, a journal and a change of clothing. That was the only information shared.
When we arrived, they randomly sorted us so that we suddenly found ourselves with other local youth that we likely didn’t really know yet.
After 20 minutes of introducing ourselves, we were invited to pick a nickname for the weekend and before I could come up with my own, somebody in my group shouted that my name should be ‘flower child’! (I was hoping to pick the name ‘Mirage’ - inspired by a handsome 22 year old Canadian ecology teacher that taught my 5th grade class, and whom I had felt completely mesmerized by).
We were loaded up into minivans, and they drove us about two hours north of our town and then pulled over on the side of the highway, in the dark, and told us that our adventure began then.
They handed us a compass, a glow stick and an aluminum pie tin to attach the glow stick underneath to create a terrible light source, and then handed us some coordinates and told us we needed to find our way to the camp in the woods. They then drove off… 🥴
It took us about 90 minutes to find our way, and when we finally arrived, terrified and perturbed, we found out that two other groups never arrived and were lost in the woods. It took the adults another two hours to find them and get them safely back.
The next morning, we woke up hungry and grumpy and were told before we could eat breakfast we had to hand carve our own wooden spoon that we would use as our only utensil for the remainder of the weekend.
The supposed ‘cherry on top’ for the weekend was on Sunday - after they had broken down all of our defenses - we would have a chance to stand up and bear our testimony of the truthfulness of our church. I remember all of the youth group girls crying with a wild abandon as they professed their certainty of the truthfulness of our church, whereas the boys would either opt out entirely or keep it super macho. When it was my turn, I opted for the hot tears and passionate exclamations, but knew I was putting on a show to rival the girls. Turns out hungry, tired kids will gladly exclaim just about anything if they get to return home from a mystery outing to the woods. 😜