What Warrior Week Is Really All About
I know the feeling of being the new student, transitioning into a new atmosphere and making new friends. The summer after seventh grade my parents told my siblings and me that we were moving to Miami. I attended Palmetto Middle School in eighth grade, but once my mom started teaching at Westminster, I was eager to transfer. I took my entrance exam and was accepted.
My friends at church, who already attended Westminster, started talking about Warrior Week and the 12-hour bus ride to Jasper, Georgia. Indeed, in the middle of August, I arrived at SharpTop Cove, A Young Life Camp, as a brand-new freshman.
It is tradition to initiate the beginning of Warrior Week with the whole student body gathered around the pool for the annual belly flop contest. Maybe it’s an analogy for how we have to face our fears, and just get involved at Warrior Week, at school or in life. It might sting a little, but we’ll be glad we did. That event was just my first glimpse at the activities I would be sharing with my new friends that year and in the years to come. Since freshman year I have enjoyed activities on the lake, such as zip lining with my best friends, attempting (sometimes succeeding) doing backflips from the rope swing, the tin waterslide, and the scariest of all, the blob. After I strapped on my lifejacket and positioned my body on the end of the blob, I was jolted in the air like a slingshot. Let’s just say that one time was enough for me!
While fun is definitely a main ingredient in Warrior Week, my favorite part has always been being surrounded by kind and God-loving students, faculty, alumni and parents who loved to serve others. Hikes with Dr. Martinez at 6 A.M. to the top of the mountain, walking with friends in the creek behind the cabins, eating delicious meals throughout the day, spending hours playing beach volleyball and most importantly, chapel time with songs of praise and a sermon. As a new student that first year, I never felt alone.
God has blessed me throughout my time at Westminster, and is by my side as I begin my junior year. This year, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of Warrior Week. This year’s Warrior Week was my favorite. Maybe it was just the familiarity the Warrior Week experience or the confidence of growing older. Once again, I hiked up the mountain with my best friends and Dr. Martinez, carefully wandered up and down the creek, participated in all the lake activities (I surprisingly did the blob again!), enjoyed amazing food, and praised our Almighty God during worship time.
Warrior Week means so much to me and I am so grateful Westminster offers the opportunity to gather in Jasper, Georgia for the first week of school. I am thankful that Westminster is more to me than just a school to me. It’s a family.
Back
It is tradition to initiate the beginning of Warrior Week with the whole student body gathered around the pool for the annual belly flop contest. Maybe it’s an analogy for how we have to face our fears, and just get involved at Warrior Week, at school or in life. It might sting a little, but we’ll be glad we did. That event was just my first glimpse at the activities I would be sharing with my new friends that year and in the years to come. Since freshman year I have enjoyed activities on the lake, such as zip lining with my best friends, attempting (sometimes succeeding) doing backflips from the rope swing, the tin waterslide, and the scariest of all, the blob. After I strapped on my lifejacket and positioned my body on the end of the blob, I was jolted in the air like a slingshot. Let’s just say that one time was enough for me!
While fun is definitely a main ingredient in Warrior Week, my favorite part has always been being surrounded by kind and God-loving students, faculty, alumni and parents who loved to serve others. Hikes with Dr. Martinez at 6 A.M. to the top of the mountain, walking with friends in the creek behind the cabins, eating delicious meals throughout the day, spending hours playing beach volleyball and most importantly, chapel time with songs of praise and a sermon. As a new student that first year, I never felt alone.
God has blessed me throughout my time at Westminster, and is by my side as I begin my junior year. This year, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of Warrior Week. This year’s Warrior Week was my favorite. Maybe it was just the familiarity the Warrior Week experience or the confidence of growing older. Once again, I hiked up the mountain with my best friends and Dr. Martinez, carefully wandered up and down the creek, participated in all the lake activities (I surprisingly did the blob again!), enjoyed amazing food, and praised our Almighty God during worship time.
Warrior Week means so much to me and I am so grateful Westminster offers the opportunity to gather in Jasper, Georgia for the first week of school. I am thankful that Westminster is more to me than just a school to me. It’s a family.
Westminster Christian School, located in Palmetto Bay, Florida, is a private, college-preparatory school for children from preschool through twelfth grade.