SOS Numbers Video.

For a couple of weekends in May, the SOS numbers video was filmed. The video is an introduction to all of our leaders, and it is played at the SOS kick-off event. Our theme this year was an elementary school storyline. Greg, a crew leader who also filmed Mock Rock, was the one filming the video. I was interested in helping, so my main job was shooting production stills/behind-the-scenes.

The first weekend of shooting included an epic game of dodgeball, which we shot at a nearby elementary school. The kids got out of school as we were filming, and many of them gathered around to watch. They cheered for the two teams as we filmed, and afterward they came up to us and asked for autographs. It was so great.

The kids decided to copy the actors.

Charlie taking a serious hit.

The next weekend, two scenes were going to be filmed in a classroom. Greg had gotten permission to film in the elementary school, but he had to be there at 7 am. I didn’t really have plans for that day, so I told him I would come with and help him out however I could.

We arrived at the school bright and early, and I mostly stayed out of his way as he set up for the actors to get there at 8am. Filming was a ton of fun, and everyone looked awesome in kids clothes. We had two scenes of people come through and finished filming by 1 pm.

Greg pensive at 7 am.

It was Micah's birthday, so he got silly-stringed.

Besides shooting stills, I didn’t really do that much and often felt like I was in the way more than anything else. But I did remind Greg of things he told me to, and it was really fun to be a part of the filming. After we left the school, we stopped by CVS and Taco Bell. We took our food to go and sat on Emerson patio, unwinding from the long day of shooting.

A few bonus photos:

They were heading to school.

SOS Beach Day.

I'll admit it: I'm a terribly blogger. I'm horribly inconsistent, and I tend to update on my life quite some time after events have happened. Just like I'm going to be doing right now. The last two months of my life have been crazy, but please allow me to update event by event.

One Saturday in the beginning of May, we had an SOS staff beach day. We carpooled to Corona Del Mar in the early afternoon and hung out. The weather that day wasn’t awesome, but it was warm enough to be in shorts and tees.

I had had a rough Friday night, and I almost bailed on the event. I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to be with people. However, as soon as I got there, my boss Claudia asked me how I was doing. She had seen a tweet I’d written the night before and wanted to know if I was okay. While everyone else went down to the water, she and I sat on our towels and talked about life. She is so incredibly wise and had great insight to offer to me. That conversation alone made my time there totally worth it.

Some people came back from the water, and more of our staff arrived. We all ate dinner together and spent time in conversation. It started to cool down, so I changed into jeans. A fire was lit, and we made s’mores. As it got darker, we all gathered together around the fire pit. We were each given a little container labeled “Pray for SOS,” which we filled with sand. We split up into small groups and prayed for the staff, incoming students, and fall orientation. When we gathered back together again, we spent some time in worship.

This staff is so incredible, I can hardly believe it.
I am so, so blessed to be a part of it.

MOCK ROCK.

For the larger part of March, most of my free time was spent preparing for one thing: Mock Rock. Put on by AS every year, Mock Rock is a giant dancing and lip-syncing competition. SOS always enters, and there were seven other teams. Each team practiced for hours on end in order to prepare.

Our theme was Batman. We had four different scenes that carried the storyline, along with a finale. Monday through Thursday, we practice from 10 pm to 1 am. After practice was over, we would go get food and then have a dance party in the parking lot. It was absolutely exhausting but worth every minute of it.

Mock Rock was held on Friday, March 25th, and I have never seen the gym so packed. All of us performers got kicked out of our seats, and we had to sit in the aisles to watch.

I know it’s lengthy, but I would love for you to take the time to watch our performance:

 The video was put together by a fellow SOS leader, Greg. He also put together a documentary about the SOS Mock Rock experience, which can be watched here. He did a great job with it, and I really encourage you to view it.

Performing our dance was one of the most amazing feelings ever. After the night was over, we all went to In-N-Out. We ate and the moved all of our cars to the Staples parking lot. We then proceeded to have an epic two-hour dance party—one that I won’t soon forget.

Please enjoy some photos from the night:

SOS Retreat.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I was selected to be part of the SOS (Student Orientation Services) staff. I was absolutely stoked about being selected, and I still love pretty much every minute of it.

The weekend following Missions Conference, all 70 or so of us packed us and headed on a retreat to an unknown location. I really can’t say too much about retreat, because SOS is all about secrecy (sort of), but I want to share a few of my favorite highlights.

We got to spend time with our crew groups, and I love my group. So much. My leader is Lexi, and she is such a beautiful person. Here is our group, Boy Meets World:

The nice one.

The one where the wave snug up on us.

The band photo.

I got to take all of the crew group photos (minus mine, of course), and I absolutely loved getting to do so. All of the groups had really fun ideas, so I just coordinated them in order to make it work for a photo. Here are all of the crew leaders; they are a truly amazing group of people:

I love when I tell people to fake laugh.

We also had a random lady take a group photo for us:

I never knew I could love such a large group of people so much.

That evening, none of the boys would let us touch our luggage. Richie even took my camera bag away from me, because I wasn’t allowed to carry it. The boys then delivered our luggage to our rooms.

Oh, those boys...

We just kind of hung out that evening. There was lots of conversation and laughter. We tried not to go to bed too late, because we knew that we had a full day ahead of us, starting early the next morning.

Well, that morning we woke up at a pounding on our door. We rubbed our sleepy eyes and headed to open it. When we did, this is what we found:

So precious.

The note read, “Morning Ladies, Please leave your luggage outside for us. Enjoy breakfast! Jesus loves you, and so do we. The Boys.”

We spent the morning doing different activities that bonded all of us. That was probably my favorite part of the retreat. The afternoon was spent at the beach, just hanging out and laughing together.

Fish faces for the fish eye.

Gorgeous.

I love Lexi. I stole this photo from her. It's one of only a few photos of me from the weekend.

As we were leaving, this was our view.

That evening, we drove back to campus and had one final activity together. It was amazing. Our retreat was officially over, but we decided to go get food. We just all love being together; it’s so great. We went to Boba Loca, but then they ran out of boba.

Photo stolen from Richie.

So we all got back in our cars and went to In-N-Out. We got some food, and then had a short dance party in the parking lot.

Our retreat was one of the highlights of my semester so far. Words cannot even convey how much I enjoyed it.