Orientation began, at least according to the very official LCC orientation packet, on Saturday, August 16. Students arrived throughout the day, and Dr. Caleb Karges hurried around Casper to welcome them. Once everyone was settled, there was a ribbon cutting at the newly finished Otto House, followed by a potluck a jaunt away at Mount Hope Lutheran Church. After supper, newly arrived students were invited to join the young adults in a rather impromptu game night hosted by Mrs. Marie MacPherson.
We started with the party game, “Fishbowl,” a musical chairs-esque game where you run to find a new seat if the fact read aloud applies to you. The last person standing reads the next fact aloud, and the mad dash begins again. I was doing quite well. I survived (read: had not yet been forced to introduce myself and read the next fact) until the second-to-last round, where I was singled out for being the only only-child in the group. Once we had exhausted the facts in the fishbowl, Mrs. MacPherson brought out five escape room puzzle boxes. We then split off into groups, some to solve a murder, crime, or mystery, and others to play a casual card game or chat amongst themselves. I was in the middle of losing, spectacularly, at a card game when we were gathered to sing a closing hymn and, politely, kicked out.
College events began on Sunday afternoon. Students and their parents flocked to the Beech Street Campus for the Academic Survival Kit with Dr. Ryan MacPherson and Parent Orientation with Dr. Karges and Prof. Joshua Hayes, respectively. I can only speak to the quality of Dr. MacPherson’s presentation, but from the chuckles audible from the other room, I can assume the parents were oriented quite hysterically. The Academic Survival Kit introduced students to the structure, expectations, and timelines of the courses. I won’t bore you with the minute details. Trust that it was thoughtfully prepared, accessible, and informative.
Afterwards, students, parents, and faculty shuffled into the ivory pews of the Wilhelm Löhe Chapel for Farewell Vespers. So many were in attendance, the hymnals had to be rationed between families and pew-mates. The stanzas of the closing hymn, “Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow,” were split up by demographic: the women sang, then the men, and most touchingly, the students, and in response, their parents. A bittersweet moment, to be sure. Following Vespers was a delicious smash burger dinner, one last hoorah before parents bid their children goodnight and farewell, leaving them to start their next chapter.
