It’s been snowing all day, most of us slept in until about six, today’s assignments have been turned in, verses have been said, it’s almost meal time, and we got to pla….work with caulking and compound all day. Yes, that qualifies for a good day. They treat us pretty good here.

This morning, it started snowing and as I’m writing this right now, it’s still snowing heavily. I’ve lived in East Texas my whole life, so this snow is pretty spectacular to me. It’s absolutely gorgeous. After breakfast, we went outside for a group picture, and somehow that turned into a short impromptu snowball fight. My hands were not prepared for that, and I’m pretty sure I lost feeling in them for at least ten minutes afterwards. It was definitely worth the fun, though.

After the exciting time in the snow, we all headed to the sixth floor to get suited up for the day’s class. The sixth floor has a closet full of “precious treasures” in the form of old and paint-stained clothes. We all picked out our lovely attire and quickly got ready so we could start class with Mr. Holdeman.

We got a quick picture before starting work. We made up a pretty good team. L-R Katie (pre-EXCEL student), Myself (Pre-EXCEL Leader), Sarah Feeny (Pre-EXCEL student), Graciela (Pre-EXCEL leader), Carissa (Pre-EXCEL student), Sarah Kim (“Mr. Bell”), Beka (DMC Staff), and Olivia (DMC staff).

Mr. Holdeman started us off teaching us about some plumbing. That was a new experience for several of the girls. Mr. Holdeman was a great teacher and kept us highly entertained with a courtship story which we all loved. He also gave us the chance to unleash anger with tearing out the wall paper. J We had so much fun ripping that off. The poor bathroom’s walls looked horrible when we were done with that part.

After doing all that, it was time for caulking. That was probably by far the most exciting part of the day because it meant we got to get messy. Beka and I had a little too much fun with the caulking. I think we forgot that it’s supposed to go on the wall and not each other’s faces. We did show our support of Advanced EXCEL with putting AE on our cheeks.

As they say, all good things must come to an end, and our good day is following suit and coming to an end.

We made a lot of memories today that will be remember for a long time. I love each and every one of my team members and leaders, and I’m so grateful for God sending me here and putting each of them and all of the speakers in my life. God’s more than good to each of us.

Live life to the fullest. Have unexpected snowball fights. Write with caulking on other people’s faces. Take fun pictures. Change the world.

-Whitney Hall

“Don’t live for the one thing everyone else lives for.” - David Powlison