New Experiences Young Life Is A Great Way To Neet New Friends, Have A Lot Of Fun

“Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.”

- From Beautiful Boy, by John Lennon

Hello. My name is Mark, and I’m a Life-aholic.

It was about a year ago that I went to Mead Young Life for the first time. It all started when a guy slightly older than myself approached me at a Mead football game and handed me a slip of paper with a phone number and directions on it. He told me to come check it out, just to see what it was like.

I didn’t quite know what to expect and I was pretty pessimistic. I never trusted religion much and Young Life is, after all, a Christian organization. But the meeting was being held at one of my neighbor’s houses and I decided to go. It’s not like I had anything else to do that Monday night.

So I walked down to the house, rang the bell and was directed into the basement. There were about two dozen people there already, and I only knew a couple of them. But immediately, the guy who had approached me at the football game recognized me.

He came over and greeted me with an enthusiastic “Hi, Mark!” and a handshake. I’ve never been very comfortable in social situations, and I can’t describe the feeling of relief I experienced when this person whom I regarded as a virtual stranger seemed to know me as an old friend. His name was Aaron McMurray. He is just one of our many Young Life leaders, and he has since become one of the most incredible people I have ever gotten to know.

Eventually, about 40 people showed up at the meeting. We did a lot of dumb stuff that night - drawing weird faces on pumpkins, playing games that involved rolling huge lengths of toilet paper (which we ended up throwing at each other later on) and singing songs about crawdads. At first it was a little awkward but, after a few weeks, I got used to it and even started enjoying it a little, And I met a lot of new people, some of whom have become good friends of mine.

After a year of going to meetings, and going to a camp at Malibu (in British Columbia, that is) last summer, I have definitely changed. No, I haven’t been “born again.” I still consider myself an agnostic, although I am a little more open-minded about religion and the people who practice it.

I’ve never been much good at actively making friends or making good first impressions on people, but Young Life has helped teach me how to be a little more social and how to take those risks in life that often turn out to be worth it.

I’ve even developed enough self-assurance to enable me to write newspaper articles (like this one…) that people I don’t know are going to read.

So all of you out there who still have doubts about what you’re reading, I say this - come to a meeting or two. Meet new people, make new friends. It’s not a cult like some people may think, and ultimately it’s your choice as to how seriously to take it.

And I’m willing to put my reputation (whatever it might be) on the line by guaranteeing that if you let yourself get into it a little, you’ll have a blast.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Want to know more about Young Life? It’s a non-profit organization that’s been in Spokane since 1949. It’s not related to a specific church, but it is a Christian organization. The goal of Young Life is to reach out to young people - Christian or not - to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The clubs do fun activities as well as deal with pressing questions of life. These schools have active Young Life programs: Mead, Shadle, Rogers, Gonzaga Prep, North Central, Lewis and Clark, University, Medical Lake, Northwood and Mead junior highs and Chase Middle School. Call Young Life of Spokane at 747-0036 if you’d like more information or want to start a club at your school.