the JCL
For those of you who haven’t been to a JCL convention, I cannot recommend it enough. They are the settings of some of my best memories, and I have tons of stories-- some of which I’ll be sharing with you today, in this article! I will say up front: these are just a few of the many crazy JCL stories I have. So if you ever want to read more-- or want to tell me your own!-- just reach out to me. Obviously, things aren’t ideal right now, but remembering these stories, looking back through old photos, and talking with friends about our convention experiences, certainly helped me feel better. And smile a bit. I hope they make you smile too.
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TROY, ALABAMA (NJCL CON. 2017)
While I don’t remember much from Troy, I do remember the kazoos. They’ve become a staple of the Agora at nationals, but this was the first year they were introduced. Everyone went insane over these torturous mini music boxes. I didn’t join the kazoo craze, but there was no escaping it on the bus ride home. I’ll set the scene. A twelve hour bus ride back from Alabama, over 100 sleep deprived teenangers, and way too many kazoos. Someone started singing Country Roads (because there’s no such thing as a silent JCL bus ride) and naturally, many other hoarse, spirit-shot voices joined in. When the inevitable off-key chorus of kazoos arrived, I couldn’t help but laugh. So this is JCL, I thought. What did I just get myself into.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA (VJCL CON. 2017)
In 7th grade, I couldn’t fathom being up past 10 or 11 at night. That belief didn’t last long.
The first night of my second states, after fellowship ended, my two roommates and I headed back up to our room in the Marriott. To unwind, Camila brought out a deck of cards. We decided to play some poker— betting with leftover lollipops from a friend’s campaign. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am incredibly competitive. But that night, there was absolutely no competition. The phrase of the night was “I GOTCHU I GOTCHU”, repeated every time someone ran out of lollipops to bet with. Someone else would scoop up some lollipops from their own stash, and toss them to the newly-broke player. Considering we were probably playing with less than ten “betting chips”, “I gotchu” was said quite frequently. Laughter filled the room that night. During a very serious and stressful two days, it was a good reminder to take ourselves a little less seriously.
FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA (NJCL CON. 2018)
All my ladies that were in Fargo know what’s coming. It was the second night of convention. The next morning, Virginia planned to host a workout and run around 7, so we turned in early. Most of us had just fallen asleep— we were probably about 20 minutes into what most of us assumed would be some well-deserved rest. Then some dust on the fire alarm said, “haha, you thought” and decided to start blaring at 1:30 in the morning. “But Savvy, you have to be kidding. There’s no way DUST set off a fire alarm.” No, I’m not kidding. But of course, we didn’t know it was dust at
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