Amanda Lee, Class of 2016

My first thoughts about visiting the Cayuga Nature Center were a little skeptical. Spending all day outside in the rain, making a fool of myself in a class skit, and spending time with people I barely knew didn’t seem like the best way to spend my Saturday. But was I wrong.

In reality it turned out to be a beautiful fall day, and it proved to be a wonderful bonding experience. Initially, I was scared because I didn’t know very many people in the Honors Program, only a few girls, from my seminar Lethal Girls and Lady Knights (which is composed of mostly girls). Earlier in the week we had attempted to prepare a skit, but what resulted was thirteen girls and one lonely guy singing along and fake fighting to “Man I Feel Like a Woman” by Shania Twain. After thoroughly embarrassing ourselves, and watching other groups perform, well planned, thought out skits, we were treated to a gourmet lunch of round food, including pizza, pasta, and lots of apple cider.

We were given the afternoon to explore. After the sun turned up we were able to romp around the center, exploring the massive six-story tree house, and marveling at the changing autumn leaves. It turns out that if you leave a bunch eighteen year olds alone, they can come up with pretty creative ways of entertaining themselves, through board games, Frisbees, and just sitting around, talking. Not to mention the six different delicious deserts that our classmates made from scratch. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, nestled among the golden treetops; I grew closer to friends and established new friendships. After spending all day together, a newly formed group of friends decided to meet for dinner. We stayed so long that we were kicked out of the dining hall, however, not before we made plans to meet again.