stuff GCC loves

So as I'm catching up with my mom, I've realized that GCC has a very distinct culture. I keep trying to explain certain things to her, and I feel like even though she kind of understands, she won't fully get it unless she's immersed in it.

Thus, the list. (I think I've seen one somewhere else, but I feel like that list applied to the older generations, so yeah. Here goes.)

STUFF GCC LOVES. 

(Disclaimer: besides God, who is not "stuff.")

1. Meeting Up.

Meeting up. "Let's meet up." "Hey, what are you doing this Friday before FNL? We should meet up." There is just something about those two words "meet" and "up" that give us both a tingly feeling in our stomach or a pit of dread. It depends. You could be meeting up to get to know a sister or brother better. You could be meeting up because you haven't had enough time this year to really sit down and talk. You could be meeting up because your family group leader told you that you need to take care of freshmen. Or you could be meeting up because you need to be hardcore rebuked. (This doesn't happen very often, I think.) Either way, we love eating, and we love fellowship. So put those two together and you have a unit that's even smaller than our exploding family groups.

2. Chinatown.

So, it was either Meyerson or here. And yeah, we love our chapel-hangoutplace-studyhall a whole lot, but something tells me that we love this little area of Philly even more. We do our eating and grocery shopping and Asian-ifying here. I mean, we binge on Chinese food and bubble tea after Lent. That tells me something.

3. Basketball.

If you want to be with the "in crowd" at our church, you need to know a little bit about basketball. Enough to know that you go up by 2's or 3's and that "Big Baby" really does look like a big baby.

4. T-shirts.

We need a t-shirt for everything: family group pride at Mini-O's, ministry pride, missions fundraising. Sure, they're chic. Sure, they're memories you can wear. But those $15 definitely start adding up. And don't get me started on the track jackets and sweatpants...

5. DSLRs.

You just can't get away from these things. They're black, they're huge, they're EVERYWHERE. Snapping artistic photos of God's creations or you just making an awkward face...the pictures will be up on Facebook approximately 1.5 hours after the event ends.

6. Three-letter words.

We're too holy for four-letter words, so why not overuse three-letter ones?

For example:

- Mad. (adj. or adv. Very, so, totally, definitely, etc.): Dude, that Lakers vs. Rockets game was mad tight. OR Pastor Young's sermon last Sunday was mad applicable to my life. 

- Sad. (adj. Unfortunate, hurtful, sorrowful; often used with an extended "a" sound.): "My GPA last semester sucked." "Saaaaad." OR "You're stupid." ":( saaad."

- DTR. (n. or v. The action of or the actual event of "defining the relationship." Usually occurs after months or years of dropping hints that one party is romantically attracted to the other party; may occur if one party does not feel that way about the other party at all but needs to clarify just so no one gets scarred.): Yeah, so he's been acting mad friendly these days, but I don't know what to do. Maybe we should DTR?

7. Class bonding.

We love spending time with our classes. We also love inter-class bonding times. But usually, we stick to our own class because they're the ones that understand us the best. :)

8. Gchat statuses.

Using this handy little tool, we inform others of not only how we feel, but where we're studying, when we've updated our blogs, which videos we're watching, and what games are currently sucking hours out of our lives (mybrute.com, anyone?).

9. Inn-Young P.

So, this is a person, not "stuff," but (banana) dang, who doesn't love IYP? With her friendly smile, infectious laughter, motherly ways, Hispanic-Econ smarts, and heart for God, it's no wonder we joke around that boys come to GCC for the one chance that they'll get to actually talk to her. But of course, those boys should reconsider their priorities and talk to God first, because she's got standards, you know.

10. DBZ.

This video infected some of us with nostalgia...and a will to make 893742 videos instead of studying.

*Things that almost made it on the list: Meyerson, guitars, suites, awkwardness.