If you have been keeping up with the Student Activities blog at all, you may have read that as a staff, we really appreciate the time that we spend together. Of course, there are times when our gears get grindin’ and our smiles are a bit forced, but nine times out of ten we really enjoy each other’s company inside and out of work.

For me, these relationships began when I joined Student Activities three years ago, relationships that will last me a lifetime. I have met some of my best friends in the SA department, and because of that, last year was one of the most difficult years for me.

When you have a group of people who go from working or being together in nearly every single day, life takes a 180-degree turn when they graduate and move away. And even if they stay around Lynchburg, you know that the friendships are going to change.

I miss my friends so much every single day. I feel as though we were all standing on a sheet of ice (that was really made up of IHOP, SA staff shirts, and old cars that we would dance on top of), and the ice would become thicker and thicker with each passing day that we spent together.

The week that my best friends moved away, I felt as though our sheet of thick, frozen water began to crack and the pieces began to float away from each other, and so far away from me. One of them made its way to Canada, dropping off friends in Pennsylvania on the way. One drifted all the way to Washington. Even the sheet that stayed in Lynchburg broke away from mine a little bit.

Yet, I remind myself when I panic at the seeming unreachability of these sheets of ice that the one I am standing on is made up of so much more than just frozen water. It’s thicker than that. It’s real, unconditional, full love.

People will leave us in life, but this does not mean that they are ever really gone. Sometimes, it just means that we have to stand on the memories that we have made until we can make new ones. And when time and distance keep me from the people in my life that I love, I have learned that the sadness of being apart can make our bond stronger.

In the (infamous?) words of Winnie the Pooh, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

I think it’s pretty safe to say we here at Student Activities value good entertainment – from music to movies to art – we live and breathe it. Our events focus closely on the culture we live in, but we rarely get a chance to talk about the various books that we’re currently reading or have impacted our department (yes, people still read books and you should too!). So we asked our staff for some titles and came up with a short list we hope you’ll check out sometime this year. Whether they are current or classic, we think you’ll find all of them interesting:

1. Desiring the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith
2. Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman
3. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
4. Culture Making by Andy Crouch
5. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
6. Scary Close by Donald Miller
7. More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger
8. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
9. The Power of Broke by Daymond John
10. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Have you read any of these before? Let us know what you think. And we’d love some suggestions, too.

Being from upstate New York, I am very accustomed to winters with lots of heavy snow. Snow is the reason why I love winter so much, every flake falling and gently resting on top of the last. The beauty of it all is quite breathtaking (well, maybe that’s just the cold). I don’t know if you guys realized this, but Lynchburg doesn’t do the best job of clearing off their roads when a big storm hits. Granted, they can’t really do a great job of clearing off the roads, considering the fact that my hometown that has 2.88 square miles of land area and more snow plows than Lynchburg does (Lynchburg boasts 49.4 square miles of land area). Now you might be thinking, “Oh, great. Another snow snob from the North that thinks they are a professional at all things snow,” and you would be right for thinking that, but that’s not the point of this post. The point is that I love the fact that Lynchburg is pretty awful at plowing the roads, because that means a lot more snow days.

Snow days are great, but what makes them so great (aside from not having to go to class) is the community that comes along with being trapped in your dorm or house for a couple of days. Whether it is building a fort out of sheets, blankets and pillows, which is usually accompanied with binge watching Netflix, or tackling some of your closest friends in the giant piles of snow, snow days seem to bring out the most creative ideas people have just to be able to spend time together and have a blast with friends. It seems like college kids will literally use anything they can get their hands on that could be used as a sled. Exploring new and old places with a foot of snow on top of everything makes you look at things differently, almost with an apocalypse feeling.

Though it might not seem like it at first, there are so many things that you can do on a snow day if you think about it. The most important part about being snowed in is that your friends are with you the whole time. It is so easy to take spending time with your friends for granted, but it is arguable that the relationships that you build in college are just as important as the things that you are learning in the classroom. Are you going to remember the grade that you got in Old Testament or are you going to remember the time you and your friends went drifting through the abandoned streets of Lynchburg? I’m not saying that a snow day is the only time that you should take time to hang out with friends, but it is a great excuse to just forget about your responsibilities for a day and get some quality time with your crew. So take advantage of the free day you have and get involved in a massive snowball fight, or stay up all night watching movies or playing different games, because unfortunately, the number of opportunities you will have to forget all of your responsibilities tend to shrink as you become older.

Over the past year, I have traveled more than I ever did before. I love to go to new places, especially with or to go see people that I love. Yet, I have realized that traveling can be very, very stressful, especially around the holidays.

Mainly, I’m stressed when things don’t go my way. This goes into a deeper problem that I have, which is called “impatience”, but when traveling it seems to flare up the most. When my flights are canceled and my trains are delayed and my bus number is confusing, I get really annoyed and always say to myself, “I will never take (this mode of transportation) ever again.”

Yet, this all changes for me when I turn to music.

Music, for me, is a lifeline. That may sound hyperbolic to you, and if it does, I understand. Music does not always touch souls in the way it has mine, but through the years, it has been something I can rely on. When everything around me is changing all the time, I can play a song and realize that it never changed and it never will. Its meaning for me may have changed over time, but the song itself is constant.

Because of its constant presence in my life, in stressful situations, music reminds me to take a breather. When flying to see my best friend and my flight is delayed, it is much more difficult to stress when Daughter’s soothing voice is in my ears. I can turn to The Head and the Heart and remember that it’s all going to be okay. And in every situation always, I can hear Ben Howard and remember that life is so, so good.

This is a reason I love working for Student Activities as an Event Supervisor – music and the entertainment world is something that we strive to be not only not only familiar with, but also immersed in. We do not choose to shy away from culture, especially in the music realm; instead, we pursue it and become a part of it so that we can appreciate it for what it is and stand for change where it needs to happen. Student Activities as a department encourages me to continue growing in my knowledge and passion for music, and this is not something that I take for granted.

Therefore, as the season of traveling and conundrum in general is upon us, remember that in the midst of all the Black Friday shoppers and holiday stress, there are things that we do have control over. The music that we choose to take with us wherever we go is one thing that we can control, and if we allow it to, it can enhance whatever we’re doing, wherever we are at.

It’s “that” “time of year” again. Everyone is gearing up for “the holidays”, and in many places, that includes getting ready for holiday movies. And since you already have a lot on your plates with shopping, decorations, and avoiding 2nd and 3rd tier relatives, please, at least let us help you get ready for holiday movies. Of course, “holiday” movies are not just movies that are all about Christmas. We measure them based on the old, old standard of “movies released sometime between mid-November and Christmas day”. This is valuable information because you don’t want to get in line with that special someone at the theater this holiday season and think, “I didn’t know about that movie!”, thereby embarrassing your date, forcing him/her to decide whether or not to feign sickness or pull a fire alarm to escape and salvage his/her night. So, let’s see what you’re going to go see.

Blockbusters galore! That’s the first chapter of our money book from 1991 called “Ways to Get Rich for the Next 8 or So Years”. It’s also a good way to describe the next month and a half in movie releases. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (Nov. 5) gets things started, kicking off what looks like a 1,600 foot wave of a black hole of movies from which no one can escape:

• Disney’s Big Hero 6 (Nov. 7) combines the big, fun heroics of Wreck-It Ralph with the Huh?-ness of Wall-E.
• Dumb And Dumber To (Nov. 14) FINALLY gives 35-year olds the sequel to end all sequels (assuming Braveheart 2 is not in the works).
• Liberty-friend Kirk Cameron throws his hat into the ring with an actual Christmas movie, Saving Christmas (Nov. 14). LET’S HOPE HE SUCCEEDS.
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Nov. 20) continues to satisfy the demographic “Yeah, I usually don’t read books but I REALLY loved The Hunger Games and, I don’t know, I just always kind of pictured Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss”.
• December 12 will be like double Christmas for some people as we not only get the final installment of The Hobbit with The Battle of the Five Armies, but also another Bible movie ($$$!), Exodus: Gods And Kings. Yet again, leave it to Hollywood to mangle a Bible story. The Exodus movie strays pretty far from the biblical narrative when (spoiler alert) Pharaoh’s magicians are defeated by Gandalf. (Excellent cross-movie promotional strategy, though. Bravo, Hollywood execs!)
• Musical fans, rejoice! You not only get the Annie remake you’ve been crying for (Dec. 19), you also get the Into The Woods movie version you’ve been tearfully begging for (Dec. 25). The point is fans of musicals are very emotional.
• On a sentimental note, movie fans will see Mickey Rooney’s and one of Robin Williams’ final films in the dramatic conclusion the Night at the Museum trilogy in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (Dec. 19). Less sentimentally, Crystal the monkey reprises her role as “Dexter”, the annoying monkey. Breathe easy, fans of this movie franchise.

Will any of these movies make a holiday movie best-of list and/or become synonymous with “the holidays”? It’s hard to say. Consider: unofficially, Die Hard and Harry Potter are two of the top holiday movies of all time. Yet, officially, Die Hard and Harry Potter get disqualified from holiday movie best-of lists for the same reason: excessive amounts of Alan Rickman. So we can just say “too soon to tell” where movies from this batch will end up; history will judge. In any case, you are now prepared for the holiday movie season. Movie Christmas and a Happy View Year!

Stay tuned to our Movies page for the dates of our upcoming Movie Nights!

I love a good story, especially when it comes to incredible musicians interacting with, and helping, their peers.

During the 1998 Grammy Awards, Luciano Pavarotti was scheduled to perform his famous ‘Nessun Dorma’. However, last-minute, Pavarotti informed the show’s producers that he couldn’t go on because he was sick. This left show organizers trying to figure out what to do with the scheduled slot. Phil Ramone, one of the show’s producers, knew that Aretha Franklin had sung that very song at Radio City for a MusicCares event just two nights prior. One problem: her arrangement was completely different than Luciano’s. With just twenty minutes until the scheduled performance, Ramone rushed to Aretha’s dressing room to convince her to cover for Pavarotti. After listening through a rehearsal tape three times, she agreed to do it…even without a rehearsal.

You can see below how the performance went. She stunned the audience.

So, if you are reading this, chances are that you are intrigued by the title, perhaps hoping to glean some relationship advice from the experts here at Student Activities. However, the knowledge I have to share with you is how to enjoy the outdoors during the frigid months of Lynchburg’s bipolar winter. Disclaimer: weather here in the 434 is extremely fickle, so you might find a sunny, seventy-degree day in January to go hiking in your short-shorts. But I’m concerned about the cold and icy days, so for those, I have a few tips.

Do the Math The first thing you’ll need is your iPhone calculator and favorite weather app. Open the app, check the weather for the day you want to be outside, and find the Feels-Like temperature. This number usually includes wind-chill and other factors, so I find it more helpful than the listed temperature. Next, compare that to the type of activity you plan to do. More strenuous activities like cross-country skiing and trail-running will make you generate a significant amount of body heat, while lower-energy activities like light hiking or walking will produce less body heat. So where’s the math? It is right here: Take the Feels-Like temperature, add or subtract an additional number to it based on your anticipated level of activity, and then dress as if that new number is the actual temperature. For example, let’s say I’m going trail running, and it is 30 degrees outside. I would add 15 degrees to the feels-like temp, unless it is really windy in which case I would only add 10 degrees. So, I would dress as if it is 45 degrees, 40 if it is really windy. Everyone is different. Some people are very intolerant to the cold and need to bundle up all the time, and I also know people that will always wear a t-shirt and shorts no matter how cold it is. This process may take some experimentation but I have found it to be a very effective strategy for my outdoor activities and I think it’s worth it. Hopefully it can be helpful to you, too.

Dress Smart Enough talkin’ about numbers. You want to go outside! You may be thinking, “Great, now I’m halfway to receiving a meteorology degree but WHAT DO I WEAR?” I am glad you asked. Ok, here is my number one rule concerning what to wear when you exercise in the cold, or at all, ever, anytime, anywhere. DON’T WEAR COTTON. Ugh. Cotton is miserable for exercising. It is really nice and soft when its dry, but when you exercise you sweat and then the cotton soaks it all up and then it gets heavy and scratchy and chafe-y. Ew.  Just don’t wear it. Instead, wear moisture-wicking materials: polyester, spandex, Lycra, and wool are all great for exercising. Now before you say “Waaaah, Under Armour is too expensive”, I’ll share my secret: Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Burlington Coat Factory. These places usually have an ample supply of moisture-wicking clothing at really low prices. Sometimes the items are weird colors or have the logos in the wrong spot, but they are cheap and functional. Apply this philosophy to all of the clothing you wear, including socks, underwear, shorts, shirts, hats, etc. Stocking up on some of these items will make dressing for the weather much easier.

My second rule is to dress in layers. Layering is a very effective technique that lets you modulate your temperature while you are out exercising. You have much more flexibility in your dress if you wear three light layers than one heavy layer. I usually start with a tight, long-sleeved, moisture-wicking base-layer, then I wear a middle loose-fitting, short sleeved layer for extra insulation, and if it is really cold I will wear my super-light and packable windbreaker jacket to help keep some of my body heat in. Hats and gloves are also very useful tools to have in your wardrobe. Think of your blood as a warming system for your body. Your blood leaves your heart very warm, it circulates through your body and then it returns to the heart to receive oxygen and then gets re-circulated. Your blood vessels are very close to your skin in your hands, feet and head. Wearing a hat, gloves, and warm socks helps to keep your blood warm when it circulates out to your extremities and is closest to the cold air of the outdoors. I find that if I wear a warm hat, socks, and gloves, I can usually ditch one of my other layers.

Where and When My last tip for enjoying the outdoors is to consider where you will be going and when. The weather and the topography of your venture will affect the temperature. Hiking on a high ridge or peak of a mountain tends to be windy, but finding tree cover can sometimes break up the wind and reduce the wind-chill. Also, the time of day is important. Even on cold days, you can still use the daytime to your advantage. If you are trying to stay as warm as possible, exercise in the early afternoon when the sun is high and go where it is sunny.

Well folks, that’s about all I have for you. I have been using these tips and tricks for a while and I actually enjoy running outside now. I used to hate running in the winter but I have learned to conquer the cold. I hope you will do the same!

I recently attended a conference in Boston, MA called FutureM. A co-worker and I spent 3 full days at sessions hearing about the future of marketing, the importance of data analysis, how Generation Z is shaping the way we do business, and more. I won’t bore you with the facts, but what we learned was eye-opening. Despite their differences, there are still many similarities between generations.

Briefly, here are some of the characteristics of the generations of the last 50+ years:

Generation X (1960’s – early 1980’s)

• ¼ have been with the same employer for over 15 years
• 62% read newspapers every morning
• 85% prefer TV over the Web

Generation Y (1980’s – early 2000’s) – I was born in 1987

• ¼ are unaffiliated with any religion
• Only 33% use the Internet as their primary source of news updates
• 36% follow their parents’ influence

Generation Z (late 1990’s – current)

• On average, they use 5 screens: smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop, iPad/iPod
• 79% feel emotional distress when away from their phones
• 42% follow their parents influence

There is some definite overlap, and it’s safe to say most of us born “between” generations relate to each other in a variety of these ways. Freshmen this year were born around 1997, 10 years after me, yet we still kind of get lumped together. That’s a little hard for me to believe! I first used a computer in school when I was in 8th grade, I was 16 when I got my first Nokia cell phone, I used a library to find information most of the time, and having the Internet in your house was a treat (we got dial-up AOL in the mid-90’s – it took what seemed like a year for a website to load).

So what’s the big deal? It’s that the conventional ways of doing things when I was 18 no longer work, or maybe don’t work as well. Also, like everyone else, I had to adapt. It’s so hard keeping up with you guys!

For some perspective, just think of Facebook. I came to college 1 year after Facebook was founded and it basically forced everyone to learn new ways to communicate. Here are some key platforms that influence us today that became available (or had major overhauls that brought success) after I started college:

• Twitter (2006)
• Google acquired YouTube (2006)
• Apple released first iPhone (2007)
• App Store opens via iTunes (2008)
• Instagram (2010)
• Snapchat (2012)

What I don’t want to do is just tell you how different my experiences were than yours and give you the “Millennials have it so easy!” sob story, because the point is: (1) people in all generations have to adapt, (2) you’ll be in my shoes one day, and (3) relationships outlive technology.

Sure, I’m not 100 years old, but I didn’t grow up with nearly as many ways to communicate as there are today. Despite this, I’ve still learned to anticipate Apple’s new releases, I didn’t have to grow up with Instagram to get why it’s ever-growing, or to see how Twitter is shaping our culture. (I’ll never understand Snapchat, but that’s a different story.) Whether you’re 18 years old, 28, or 58, we adapt and figure out how to get on board with all these changes. We’re doing it together.

Second, I may be older than you, but you’ll soon to be in my shoes. I can guarantee that Instagram may be cool now, but in 10 years, who knows? It could be replaced the way Facebook replaced MySpace. At 18, I could have never imagined how fast Google could pull in millions of results for one topic. You too will be surprised by similar things. You may understand technology today, but take my word for it: even those 5 years younger than you are already shaping the way you’re doing things.

Lastly, relationships outlive technology. This may be my most important point. The way we communicate will always be changing, but relationships continue to grow despite which platforms we use. Learn from the tools you have, but grow from the people around you. Carve out time to be intentional with your friends, away from your phones, off Instagram, and just enjoying life. Your friends will stick with you well past the existence of Snapchat.

This is what we strive for at Student Activities – we’ll definitely connect with you on social media (it’s important to meet people where they are), but there’s nothing more fulfilling to us than fostering relationships with you at our events. So, no, you don’t have to stop posting your #selfies, but please, just get off your phone for 2 seconds and come hang out with us!

So we’re a few weeks into the semester and you might be thinking, “There’s got to be more to do in Lynchburg than going to Wards Road and using all my Flames Cash!” Well, I’m going to take you down the road less traveled and give you some exciting alternatives.

Lynchburg is positioned in such a great area of Virginia. You can go two hours north-east and be in Virginia’s state capital Richmond, or travel about three hours north and visit D.C. Also, Lynchburg is a day’s drive away from the Atlantic coast and the beautiful Appalachian Mountains that separate Virginia and West Virginia.

Even if you want to stay a little closer to Lynchburg, there is so much to do, it may take four years of college to experience it all. Here are just a few places to see that will hopefully pique your interest to explore more.

1. Go hike

• Peaks of Otter: Sharp Top
• McAfee Knob
• Lynchburg Trails

2. Learn outside of the classroom

• Downtown Lynchburg
• Authentic Shakespearean Plays
• Appomattox Court House

3. Eat at restaurants that don’t accept Flames Cash

• For Pizza Lovers
• “Lynchburg Is For Locavores”

4. Do something weird

Let’s be honest. Lynchburg isn’t a big, exciting city like you may be used to. You might have to look a little harder, and maybe do some activities that you aren’t used to, in order to see how much of a treasure Lynchburg and this area of Virginia really is. But trust us: it’s definitely worth it.

If you want us to take you somewhere away from Wards Road, check out our calendar!

On September 26th and 27th I had the opportunity to attend the first annual Landmark Music Festival in Washington D.C. The mission of the music festival was to raise over 750 million dollars for repairs of the monuments and landscaping at the National Mall. The festival featured a smorgasbord of artists including Drake, The Strokes, alt-J, Ben Howard and many others. Despite Landmark being put on for a great cause and the awesome selection of bands that were playing, I was still a little hesitant to make the journey to the nation’s capital. I know what you are probably thinking: “You were hesitant on the opportunity to see Drake perform Hotline Bling live?!” and the answer to that is yes. I was hesitant to go because I was uncomfortable.

I had never been to an actual music festival before, so I had no idea what to expect going into it. All I knew was that there was going to be thousands of people there and many of those people would probably be doing many things that would be considered socially acceptable in the real world but not here at Liberty. I was right, and in that instance, I was fine with being right. A memorable quote from the weekend was “everything that I struggle with is within these walls”. I love that quote because that is one of the main reasons why some people would say why I should not have gone to the music festival, but that quote is one of the main reasons why I went to Landmark. It is easy to uphold your values and beliefs when everybody around you is in agreement and doing the same thing, but as soon as you are all alone in a crowd of people with opposite values and beliefs, that is when you will be tested. I want to be tested because I won’t be at Liberty for the rest of my life and I want to be prepared for the real world. So if I have the opportunity to go to a Drake concert where every other person is drunk or smoking something a little stronger than tobacco, I will take that opportunity for the learning experience, because that is a real life situation I may have to deal with further down the road.

At Student Activities we highly encourage students to engage in culture and we try to incorporate that into every event that we put on. We want you to ask tough questions. We want you to think for yourself. We want you to believe in your values because you have thought through them, not because your Biblical Worldview professor told you what to believe in. We understand that it is easy to stay inside the “Liberty bubble” where it is safe, which is why we try so hard to push the importance of cultural engagement through the events that we provide. There is a fallen world out there that you and I are going into and we need to be prepared for it.

I was uncomfortable at Landmark Music Festival and I loved (almost) every second of it. I saw enough acts of PDA to last a lifetime and there are definitely some images from the festival that I won’t be able to un-see, but honestly, I would do it all again in a heartbeat. It was an eye-opening experience that I was able to take so many lessons from and it is a memory that I will be able to share with my friends for a very long time. So if you are deciding whether or not to do something that you wouldn’t normally do, something that would challenge your beliefs and your values, something that would take you out of your comfort zone, I encourage you to take the advice of the wise Shia Labeouf and “just do it”.