By Dylan Stanford

With nights full of dancing and days full of club activities and beach games, the Young Life clubs from all around the beach gathered together at a hotel down at the Outer Banks to not only bond over the festivities, but also talk about their beliefs as a Young Life family.

The Young Lifers left on a bus together after school on Oct. 16 and arrived at the Outer Banks at approximately 8 p.m., where according to sophomore Lonni Howard, a dedicated and second-year member, all of them “took over the hotel.” Afterwards, they had time to meet everyone in their cabins and then went to the first of four “clubs.”

The clubs are mostly like the ones here at school, where members first dance and sing along to songs together and complete it by all sitting down for a real and deep discussion; however, this time there were hundreds of Young Lifers from around Virginia Beach and it’s a lot more like one huge family.

“[The clubs] happen throughout the weekend and are everyone’s favorite thing,” said senior Hope Berns. “You never know what’s going to happen at club, and the mystery is one of the best things about it!”

When they weren’t in clubs, they could be found either on the beach, making spontaneous trips through the town with the leaders, or participating in one of the many activities set up around the hotel.

“There were games out on the beach. In one of them you had to try and steal the other person’s socks and wrestle them,” said sophomore Brady Gray, another dedicated and passionate member. Some of the activities available were ping-pong games, swimming in the pool, playing cornhole, dodgeball, and basketball.

Howard added that on the first night there was an enormous rave where “we each had a giant dance party with strobe lights and flashing colors.”

Although there were many engaging activities, there was still room for sentiment. For all the Young Lifers, it was like they were all united together for the same reason according to Howard who said they delved deeper into their beliefs and even got to do a sped-up version of the Gospel where they went through all the miracles and sacrifices of Jesus together.

According to Berns, the heroes of the weekend were the leaders. They took a lot of time out of their schedule to work diligently on helping the Young Lifers understand the talks and to help them become the best version of themselves.

The weekend ended with one last club, and despite the fact that it was the last club and slightly wistful, it did not stop them from ending the trip on a good note with more dancing, singing, and karaoke.

If there was an overall moral of the weekend, Berns said that it would be that “living the best life is one that is lived in a community with God,” and that when you focus on “life, love, and God the other things seem to just fall into place.”