Last night I went to a masquerade party with a group of my friends. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! It lasted till after midnight--in fact, I think I got back to the dorm at 1 AM. I didn't get to sleep till three, though, because I called my mom--it was her one day off--and talked to her about Columbus Day weekend plans and plans the weekend after and everything else.

Today I'm supposed to go to a sleepover, but I don't know if I'll make it to that. I have a lot of homework to do this weekend, and I really don't want to be up two nights in a row until three o'clock in the morning. But Jenny was counting on me for a ride... So I guess we'll see.

That wasn't what I was going to write about; I was going to write about the party.

We played this rockin' game that Forest called the What If game. Sitting in a circle, we each got a piece of ppaer and soemthing to write with. Forest told us to write down a "what if?" question that would elicit a very odd answer. (Example: "What if the moon was made of tuna instead of cheese?")

After writing down our questions, we passed our papers to the right or left or whatever we decided and that person wrote a response to our question. Pretty simple so far, right? After that, one person started by reading their question, and then the person next to them read their answer--the one they had a different question to! And we continued around the circle like that. There were some really strange responses, and it was just hilarious!!

Some of the answers went so well together that it was freaky. Once Gwen asked the question on her lap: "What if novels came to life and haunted our dreams at night?" And Jenny, who was on her right, read her answer: "Then the Left Behind series would become part of the Bible and Dr. L couldn't bash it anymore."

Another was when someone asked, "What if leperachauns took over the world?" Erik, who is a very short person, read the answer to the question on his lap: "Then I would be in good company." (The actual question to that answer: What if hobbits were real?)

Another one: "What if sneezes created babies?"
The answer to that person's right: "Then welfare would be out of control." (The actual question to that answer: What if Oompa-Loompas really did exist?)

Some of them definitely jumped up to PG ratings. :D One of these was, "What if men gave birth?"

The answer that question got was, "Then our children would be really skinny."

We were lost in laughter for several full minutes with that one. The actual question to that answer was something like, "What if we only ate vegetables?"

My one potentially PG question that I wrote was nearing the end of the night (like, after midnight). I was tired and we were contemplating watching Phantom of the Opera. (It was a masquerade party, after all!) My question was, "What if we all fell asleep here tonight?"

Erik happened to be the one who got my paper. He answered, "Then we'd all be in trouble but have lots of good memories."

I don't know what the question before him was, but it kind of fit, definitely coming out PG! LOL!

While writing about the night and the game in my diary today (when I should've been doing all the papers that I have due Monday), I got some good thinking out of that question in particular... I love how sensitive we are to the idea of falling asleep together, even only by accident. I love it. This is my world; I belong here. Maybe some people think it's retarded, tacky, old-fashioned, whatever to be sensitive to that kind of stuff, but because of that, I feel so safe here at NNU. I'm never afraid of being seduced. I'm never afraid of my classmates in genearal. They're all so trustworthy--even the guys! And I love that.

There's one thing, however, that NNU fails to be sensitive about: that's gossip.

You're expected to date for marriage here. That is a heck of a lot of pressure. The minute a couple holds hands or sometimes even walks together in public, those who saw tell their friends and those friends tell their friends, and before you know it, the entire campus has heard.

If we were bigger, it might not be such a problem. But everybody knows eveybody here. As I've heard said numerous times, the Nazarene world is a very small world indeed.

And, just to clarify, we are not all Nazarenes. I don't think Nazarenes even outnumber all the other denominations combined. But it is a Nazarene campus, and there are a good percentage of born-and-bred Nazarenes.

That said... You've heard of six degrees of separation. Well, in the Nazarene world, it's more like two degrees of separation. Everyone is really connected.

I don't know why, but being in a big school seems to make you care less about who's going out with whom. It's more acceptable or something. Absurd, isn't it? Maybe Nazarenes are just a lot more sensitive to the faults and shortcomings of people. Maybe being taught to be "holy" and "perfect" makes us think we are "perfect" and everyone else should be, too.

It's a very intriguing puzzle, the world of Nazarenes. Maybe I'll figure it out someday.

-Stephanie

Other examples of questions and answers in the What If game:

"What if birds could swim and fish could fly? Then God made a tactical error."

"What if girls still wore corsets?"
"Then afros would never have come into style."

"What if jack-o-lanterns came to life and took over the world? Then we'd all be orange."

"What if sneezes created babies? Then handkerchiefs would be a form of birth control."

"What if Elvis had been a rapper? Then we'd all be singing, 'I just wanna be your homie G.'"