Things I Learned at the Corn Maze Tonight

Tonight I went with our youth group to the local corn maze. It's a good fall night here...by good fall night I mean COLD. But I bundled up and and off to church I went. We got to the maze and things seemed to be going well except it was about 7 o'clock and getting dark. The guy who runs the maze told us that if we got stuck in the maze for over 2 hours, someone would come find us. I was hoping that there were torches along the way or some kind of lighting devices. There were none. Did I bring a flashlight...uh no.

So off we went. I checked the time as we entered the maze...thinking if I hear, "If you build it, he will come," I was going to make a run for it. We chose to answer the movie, music and TV questions. I didn't want to do the biblical questions cuz I didn't know how hard the questions would be and didn't want to get stuck in the maze any longer than I had to be.

It started off well. We found the first post for the question with little trouble...actually that's how the first five questions went. Then it got REALLY dark. People were screaming in the maze, folks (which ran the danger of being maimed by me) were jumping out of the maze, cutting through the corn stalks, and screaming which was a little un-nerving.

Finally, less than an hour later, we emerged from the corn...we unfortunately were the last ones out. But we made it none the less...and in 50 - 55 minutes.

Things I learned:
1. Don't go to the corn maze at night.
2. If you do go at night take a flashlight. Using your cell phone works ok unless you keep pressing the camera button. (I have great pics of blackness of the corm).
3. When wandering around in the corn, it might be a good choice to continue turning the way the previous clue told you...when we followed this tip we got to the next question easier...and this might just be true of this particular maze.
4. Dress warm...I was fine but my legs are still a little chilly...reminded me of the ol' marching band days in November.
5. Make sure that everyone uses the restroom before you leave your starting point...especially if they say they have to go to the bathroom before you enter the maze.
6. It helps to pick a topic/category that you have a handle of...or have someone who has a bunch of trivia in their head.
7. Did I mention to take a flashlight?!

All in all it was fun...just wish I could have seen a little better.

Very Rare

There have been a few very brilliant people that I have known throughout my life. In high school there was Kristen and Eric...a brother and sister...he was older she was my age...who were the smartest people I know. Both are doctors now. In college was Lara...I remember that when she took the actuarial exam she scored higher than our calculus professor (a thing our Dr. D really never got over).

When I taught I had a few really smart kids in my classes. There was one kid that was taking Algebra II when he was in 8th grade.

I was blessed with three girls in the youth group I counseled...all three are smart as tacks...one's an economist who did her graduate work at Berkley...the middle is a pediatrician and the youngest is a lawyer. WOW!!

Today's newspaper had the story of a member of our current youth group who scored the only perfect score on his ACT during the fall quarter of his junior year. He's one of the smartest, down to earth kids I've ever known.

Yeah, people like this are rare. It's even rarer to find someone so smart who can actually relate to those around them. He does all of that and is president of our youth group. Way to go!!!!