The Azusa Pacific Blog

Hey guys, J.P here again. A few days ago, I posted a blog about pre-view weekend at High Sierra, and now it’s unfortunately over. The students that all came up from the main campus from Azusa Pacific went back to campus Sunday morning. Pre-view weekend was so much fun. It’s a breath of fresh air when the student numbers here raise from 22 to 60+. I met some really cool and down to earth students during pre-view weekend, but I’ll be able to see them all next semester when I’m finished with High Sierra on the main campus at Azusa. Some of the students that came to pre-view weekend loved it (I think everyone loved it) and a handful of them are planning on coming Spring semester this year, which is a shame because I’ll be back on campus so I won’t be able to see them!

Anyway, for pre-view weekend, the High Sierra kids (me) hosted activities like Ultimate Frisbee, High ropes (Rock wall, cables, other fun activities up high in the trees), Kayaking, and Archery. After dinner, we played the game called “Murder Mystery” I was talking about in my previous post and it was so fun, scary, and a really great experience with students whom I’ve only met for about 2 days.

So basically, Murder Mystery is a game where there are a few “killers” on campus. No one knows who the “killers” are, so you can’t really trust anyone while your playing the game. Around campus, there are hidden messages that cover the campus. In order to win, you need to find and read all of the messages to find out who the killers are, who they killed, why they killed them, when they killed them, and how they killed them. There were about 12-15 messages in the dining hall, the weight room, the field, and the volleyball court. While we are all searching in the pitch black (all lights are turned off) with flashlights(so fun and scary!), there is music being played. When the music stops, we all have to freeze where we are at and turn off all of our flashlights. Then, the “JAWS” soundtrack comes on and the “killers” who are amongst us get to move and kill their next victim. They kill them by spraying them with a squirt gun, and if you get squirted you scream as loud as you can and fall down, and stay in your spot where you died for the remainder of the game…

This game was so much fun! I’m not really good at putting two and two together, so I worked with my 3 friends and we ran around finding all the messages. One time I was by myself in the volleyball court looking for a message, and the music turned off! I hid in the corner of a volleyball court and sat down. Across from me, I saw one of the “killers” squirting girls who hid together on the other end of the volleyball court. The killer walked past me and didn’t even see me. It was awesome.

Another time, I was with my 3 friends and the music turned off, so we hid under the dining hall porch which is pretty spacious. We hid behind these two half pipes for skateboarding that were stored under there and didn’t die that round. After we got the hang of the game, even before the music stopped, we hid about 1-2 minutes before the music actually stopped so we wouldn’t get ousted by the “killer”. After we found out who two of the killers were, we ran into them and we all started screaming. It was so funny! When 2 girls solved the murder, the game was over, even though me and my 3 friends were still alive. “Murder Mystery” was probably the high light of pre-view weekend.

Now, with the pre-view students gone, it’s back to the solid 22 students here at High Sierra. I have no classes today (High Sierra only has classes tues, wed, and thurs), but I have to get some philosophy and christian classics homework done. I also have my mid term for fit for life at 4 pm. We have to run a mile and half in less than 9 or 10 minutes. When we first got tested at the beginning of the semester, I ran it in over 12, which basically means failure. Since then, I’ve been keeping up with my fit for life journal, and I think I will do tons better than I did last time. I’ll let you guys know how I do in my next blog.

Well, I have some exciting news! This weekend is homecoming weekend!! The High Sierra students drive the 5 hour long ride back to the APU main campus, and we stay there from thursday night to sunday morning. I’m pretty stoked to see all of my friends I met during man choir camp (men’s chorale) and orientation week, as well as my roommate in Trinity 2nd north! I don’t how much I’ll be at the campus for. Two of my friends here at High Sierra want to do different stuff. One of them wants to take me to Knotts Berry farm because it’s October and they’re having the scare rides and mazes and all that. I’ve never been since I’m from Virginia. Another one of my friends wants me to go to L.A with her to get in the guiness book of world records for the most people doing the “Thriller” dance by Michael Jackson. At 5 pm on saturday I think, a lot of people are getting together in L.A with paint, costumes, the whole nine yards and are recording themselves dancing, and all across the world during the same time other countries are getting together and doing it too. I think they’re aiming for about 270,000 people to dance to the “Thriller” song. But, if I did it I would have to memorize the full 6 minutes of the song by myself. It would be really cool to get in the book of world records, but I haven’t made up my decision yet of what I want to do because I really miss my friends back on campus, but we’ll see…

Hope everyone has a good and blessed week. -J.P

Okay, J.P here again with a few words of wisdom to prospective college students and college students. As a freshman, I realized how important sleeping is!! Napping is probably what most college students do with their free time! The first few weeks of college during orientation week, there were hundreds of freshman and upper classmen on Trinity lawn until at least 5 or 6 am. It was crazy!

Now that the first weeks of exciting college life has cooled down, homework, procrastinating homework, and keeping a social life intact will probably keep you busy throughout the night, and in some cases, mornings. :(. For me, I have always been extroverted and really outgoing, so I usually would stay up to mingle with friends and just kick it back and relax. I would end up going to sleep around 1 am to about 3 am, and then wake up the next morning uber tired. Then, in my classes, I wasn’t as productive because I barely had any sleep.

After realizing how tired and unproductive I was in class, I knew as a college student, sleep is the number one thing that keeps us going. Instead of doing homework late and socializing with friends, you should sleep! Now, I try to go to bed around 11 pm or even 12 am, but that’s still a lot better than 2 or 3 am. The next morning I’m a lot more awake and energized for my day. You don’t realize how much a couple hours of extra sleep can do. I’m much more productive with homework and more engaging in classes when I get more sleep, and all my classes have participation grades.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s going to be times when you need to stay up late to study for finals, exams, etc, but prioritize your time efficiently. I have had such a hard time trying to prioritize my time between studying, doing homework, socializing, calling my parents and friends, working out, and even eating! College will either help you massively with time management, or break you.

I’m going to post another blog later during the week about my experience climbing HALF DOME! chyeah!

Good Night and God Bless, J.P!