amazing weeks of my life. I will never ever forget the trip up. Convention was in Miami, Ohio in 2018. It was a long trip amidst a group of people I didn’t know, so I decided to try to sleep on the massive ball of plastic bags that was next to me for the service project that year. I was dozing in the summer heat when I heard a girl near me burst out laughing and shout, “Look! That is such a mood!” I snap my eyes open instantly to see a girl with short black hair and a big smile staring back at me. “What's your name?” I knew instantly I would like this girl. She exuded friendly extrovertedness and was teeming with chaotic energy that was slightly intimidating, but it drew me in; I was intrigued. I told her my name was Josh and asked what hers was. She replied, “Natalie!" She smiled wider and wider by the minute. As the ride continued, we continued to talk and soon became friends. She was the first one to introduce me to other JCLers, all her friends, whom I got to know a little bit more as the trip progressed and throughout the week. We went to dances, we relaxed, we laughed, and we had fun at convention together. And when we did Spirit, we went all out in it.
Virginia was a force, a beast, a voice heard loud and clear over all the other states. The Spirit of Virginia runs deep because we have so many people that care so much about the classics, and we want to show just how much we love the JCL. The people whom I met at my first NJCL made the JCL unforgettable to me. I would describe my second NJCL with
just as much love, if not more than the first. I got even closer with Natalie and her group of friends, and had an amazing, unforgettable week filled with so much love and Spirit. What do these stories all have in common though? Every story from the JCL is rooted in the same idea, the same underlying concept of love for the classics, and of bond created through a mutual affection. This is the Spirit of the JCL. It is unstoppable, it is breathtaking, it is overwhelming, it is pure, it is indescribable, and it is universal to everyone. We all feel it, we all know it, and we all love it. I know I will forever feel the JCLove because of the Spirit of the JCL. As I sit here trying so hard to sum into words what the Spirit of the JCL truly means to me, all I can think of are the memories and friends I have met through the JCL. If you want to understand what the Spirit of the JCL is, stop and take a second to just think of what the JCL means to you, what it has done for you, and how it has affected you. So you feel it, too? You understand it, but you can’t describe it. That’s because it’s not just your experience. It is our collective memories, our collective happiness, our collective love, that makes up the Spirit of the JCL.
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