The beginning of Bonner...I was accepted into the Bonner Scholarship Program in the summer of 2012, before entering into my freshman year at Emory & Henry College. I honestly didn't know what this programmed entailed, which caused me to be very apprehensive. When you hear you're eligible for a scholarship, one would instantly think, "Free money? Heck yeah!". Which is true, but I also thought about the heavy load that could be taken off of the shoulders of my parents. My parents worked so hard to get me here, accepting was the least I could I do to repay them.
In August, I arrived to E&H for Bonner orientation. This was the most frightening day of my life. Not because I had to meet a whole group of new people, but because I had to leave my parents. This was the first time I've ever been away from my parents for more than a month. So, you can only imagine how much I cried that day and that night. But I had to put on my big boy pants and realize that this was the start of my future. Later that day, all of the freshman Bonner Scholars, directed by former Bonner Director Shannon, went on ritual hike that led to an obstacle course. Mind you, this was very new to me: the whole hiking through the woods thing. When we arrive to the obstacle course, they explained that we had to participate in activities that incorporated team building and trusting. Here is where I began to open up and begin to understand the jiff of what Bonner was about, but I didn't know that it would change my life forever. |