As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently joined an a cappella group. I met all of the girls in the group at the first rehearsal except for one named Emmerson, who was in quarantine at the time. So, I did not meet her until the second week of rehearsals. At the end of rehearsal Monday night, the two of us introduced ourselves and then got a chance to talk for a while on the way to the birthday party of another girl in our group. She is such a kind person who has a passion for animals and wants to become a veterinarian, and we bonded over complaining about all the bio and chem courses we have to take! After that night we were friendly but it was not until THON weekend that we accidentally became closer.
It was around 9:30 pm Friday night at the BJC, and I was hungry for a chicken basket. So, my two friends and I took a trip to concessions and stood in the hallway gobbling down our greasy chicken fingers and fries. It was then that I spotted a girl walking by in a pink bucket hat and a tan “Savoir Faire” sweatshirt (the name of our a cappella group). It took me a moment to recognize that it was Emmerson! I called out to her and gave her a hug, and she explained that her club’s section in the stands was full so she was trying to figure out where to go to participate in THON. So, I offered to her to come hang out in our section for AED (my pre-health honors society) and she took me up on the offer.
I had never spent much time with Emmerson (since I had just met her the week before) so I wasn’t sure if it would be awkward talking to her. However, she fit right in with me and my other friend Noah and we had a great time jumping around in the stands of the BJC. I had been there since 4:00pm but we both had a goal to stay until 2:00am, so we kept each other going. Every so often we took a break to walk a few laps around the BJC, we shared a pint of bittersweet mint creamery ice cream, and stayed on our feet dancing th
e whole time! We ended up hanging out at THON for almost 5 hours and somehow never ran out of things to talk about. Finally, a little after 2 am, we walked home together in the freezing cold wind and made plans to get coffee the next day.
Although this friendship is a very new one that I haven’t had much time to develop yet, I can tell that Emmerson and I will become good friends over the next three years in a cappella together. It wasn’t necessarily a “hello to a stranger” that brought us together, but it was a chance meeting in a hallway of a chaotic place with thousands of people that made us bond.
Hi! I really enjoyed reading this post as always! I also think its cool that this interaction happened so recently and ended up being perfect for your blog! All of the chance encounters you write about are so unique, but somehow you make them relatable, which I love. THON is a very chaotic place to meet people and make friends, but somehow I think it is also a bonding experience. Great post and I’m looking forward to next weeks!
Hi!! I really enjoyed reading your post! I think it’s really cool that you were able to draw upon such a recent incident for your blog! I loved reading about your experience at THON and how even admist the chaos of the event you were able to meet up with people and from relationships. Speaking from personal experience I loved THON and found it to be a great experience. I was able to hang out with a lot of my friends in a really fun and unifying environment. I’m glad you had such a great experience and I really enjoyed reading about it. Overall great post and I can’t wait to read the next one!!