Day 1

Forgive me if I start repeating myself. This entire week long of lectures, activities, and trips kind of all blur together sometimes so I will probably have to refer back to my schedule so that I don't jump ahead or fall behind in all of the details. The first day of LEI began with me getting up at 5:45 am to finish up my packing so that I would be ready to leave my house at 7:45 am to head toward Samford to meet with the other girls and my advisor that were going. My aunt and cousin came along so that my mom wouldn't be alone, especially with my younger sister, and they went shopping, of course, after they dropped me off. On our way to Samford on I-459, we passed at big truck driver who was swerving all over the place. We tried to figure out if he just tired or texting. Turns out that he was reading the newspaper and doing the cross-word puzzle in it. Go figure. At around 9:45 am, we left Samford and headed towards Judson College. My next encounter with another 18-wheeler driver came as soon as we exited the interstate. It kind of snuck up on us, so the girls following us missed the exit. My advisor was calling them to see if they were going to go to the next exit and turn around or just use their GPS and let it re-route them. As we were at the stop sign off the exit, the truck driver apparently didn't notice that we were stopped and had our breaks on and rolled up right behind us and laid down on his horn. He LITERALLY came within 6 inches of the vehicle! But we made it to Judson about 10 minutes before the other girls and within 5 minutes of walking on the small campus, I developed a blister on my right foot. It was killing me, but we had not checked in because we were waiting for the other girls. Also, our vehicle was on the other side of the building in which we had to check-in to. So we walked back to go move our vehicles and wound up walking around our residence hall that we were staying in just trying to figure out how to get in. Once I settled in, I immediately found my rescue in my flip-flops. But of course, we had to be in business attire for the sessions and I had no band-aids, so I put on a different pair of heels. This is one of those moments where you choose the less of two evils. So needless to say, my day wasn't looking too bright and I really wasn't looking forward to the rest of the week with how my day started and being extremely tired. It was boring at the start. We broke up into groups and my group leader wasn't there, so it was a bit chaotic not really knowing what to do. At the end of the evening, we were all very tired, but were slowly bonding. I still felt uneasy about the week and figured it was going to be one of those same ole same ole leadership conferences. Once I was able to go to my room, my foot was killing me and it got worse as I jumped in the shower and the water hit my open blister! No joke, the blister formed and opened within the first 30 minutes of being there that first day and was about the size of a quarter because it was two blisters next to each other. To sum it up, the first day was not very successful and I guess that is how all first things go. You don't really know what to expect because you have never done it. I am actually glad that the first day was uneasy. :) I'll go further into that as my days progress.