Arbor Games Day

Let me tell you a bit about Arbor Games…and why it is truly such a beautiful thing!


Arbor Games is an incredibly stressful, intense, competitive, and delightful cross-campus competition where teams made up of residence floor (and lead by busy RAs) get to forget about their homework for a few hours…so that they can focus on more important things, like chugging cans of soda and creating the best one-minute, musical skit possible.
As an RA, I have spent the last several weeks obsessed with this day. I have helped to choreograph dance moves, purchased several rolls of neon duct tape, and have spent every waking hour desperately trying to convince my residents that this endeavor would be worth their time.
Today was the day where it was all worth it…hundreds (nearly one thousand) people ran around campus dressed in some of the most ridiculous costumes that I have ever seen. As I worked to get my team ready, I saw human trees, giant aardvarks and people dressed up as poop (not kidding) working on their own skits.
Somehow, those beautiful moments of insanity make all of the hours of stress seem like a small price to pay. For a few hours, homework, stress, and questions about life and future plans vanish in favor of delightful silliness. For a few minutes, the only people that we can see are our team mates. We care more about the status of a huge tug-of-war game than the current job market, or economy. We can forget that we have real lives and real things to worry about.
That is healthy.
What I was reminded of today was the fact that more of our days should look like Arbor Games day. We should, every once in a while, forget about all of the things that we are supposed to be worried about and simply focus on the fun and insanity that is right in front of us.
Arbor games are a reminder to be present, and to delight in the simple things…
Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.