McDaniel Grovers

Bonjour tous les lecteurs! I was gone for a few weeks to Florida State University in Tallahassee. As some of you may know, I was taking week-long college classes, sponsored by a program known as American Legion Boys State. It is a group formed by veterans, whose desire is to instill Americanism and moral values in the heart of many young men around Florida. My day began early two Saturdays ago, going to the Alliance to work the café for a couple of hours. Soon After I had to finish some packing, and leave for the American Legion Post, where we would rendez-vous with the bus. It was a long bus ride, and unfortunately the driver didn't help much. It got to a point where he asked us where I-95 was! After a slumber-less night and a drudging walk around the campus attempting to get to Kellum Hall, we finally found it.

It took a while for my roommate to register and for a moment I thought something had finally turned out right, I had a room to myself! After a long hot shower though, I met him as he was walking into the room with very large luggage. We immediately clicked, since both of us play the same position in soccer, share the same faith, and liked the same music. To be honest, i thought he was going to be my only friend the whole week, since most of the other kids i had seen registering seemed a bit odd. My mind was completely changed after our first city meeting.

Each floor was divided in two, and each half made a city. Together they formed a county, and 9 counties formed the entire Florida Boys State. My city was McDaniel Grove, in Navy County. It may seem boastful to say that our city had the most legitimate boys in the whole program, but not saying it, would take away the candidness of the situation. I soon met some of the guys on our city, and found out how well I could relate to most of them. We all had great stories to tell from each of our hometowns; like Stephen Beutler, who knew a lot of people from around Florida, or Mark Calhoun (my roommate), who had gone to round of sixteenths for the u-17 soccer state championship, or Eric Miller, who would rap with me most of Drakes biggest hits, acapella. David Nolan, who was secretly an artist, as well as a prankster. After 48 hours living together, we were more than a city, we had become a band of brothers that came to be known as the McDaniel Grovers.