HOBY...the love of my life :)

Ok, so I finally decided that since I mention HOBY in about half of my blogs, I would describe why it is so dear to my heart! First of all, HOBY is a leadership conference for students coming out of their sophomore year of high school. One student from each high school has the opportunity to come to this prestigious conference. It consists of 4 days of goofy cheers, panels, motivational speakers, magnificent Butler food, and bonding. You get down to Butler University on a Thursday morning. Immediately greeted by cheering junior counselors, you tell your mom or dad that you want to go home right now. If they are good parents, they make you stay. After registering, you are dragged into a circle to do ungodly embarrassing cheers. When all of the students have finally arrived, you are grouped into teams with a counselor and junior counselor. This is your group for the rest of the conference. The next 3 days are filled with more cheering. I could go through every little detail, but as I tell everyone else, it doesn't mean the same thing if you aren't there. On Saturday night, there is a dance. During this time, you get to mingle with people other than your group, who by this time, you want to spend time with anyways. Sunday morning could end up being one of the saddest days of your life. This is the hour of truth, how much did you come to love the people you just spent 4 days with. After leaving, you realize that you have just left some of your best friends. They aren't the same kind of friends as the ones from home. These people came to know the real you, because at HOBY, you don't have to pretend to be anyone else. If you choose to come back the following year as a JuCo, you must complete 100 hours of community service. In my mind, it is completely worth it. Being a JuCo is also a very rewarding experience. You get to go along with one of the groups but also see the change in the ambassadors. It's also a great chance to see some of the best friends you lost contact with over the year. I went back this past summer for the 3rd time. I was able to be a Special Assisstant. This meant that I was almost completely behind the scenes working to make everything go smoothly. That position meant a lot to the ones who got it. There were only 7 of us who were ambassadors together. These people are some of my best friends, and I cherish any time that I get a chance to see them now. The following video is from the talent show this year. The guy and the three girls have known each other since their ambassador year more than 6 years ago. They were grossed out but not as much as the crowd was!

This picture is our entire group of special assisstants from 2007!!!