4th Annual Corn Shenanigans

Every year, Campus Crusade throws a huge party in the fall called the "Barn Bash." Rex and I have attended this party every year. With a HUGE two story barn, hundreds of people dancing, cider and donuts galore, and everyone dressed in farm-ish clothes, could there BE a better way to celebrate the coming of fall?? No.

The first year that Rex and I went to the Barn Bash, we talked to our friend Lynn and decided it would be a fun idea to go run through the corn field across from the barn and creep each other out in the dark, crisp, spooky air. It was a BLAST, and we decided that we must make it a tradition. So far, we have continued our corn tradition each year. With this being our fourth (and possibly final) year at the Barn Bash, we had to make our corn run super extra fun and exciting.

Well, we were certainly not let down.

Our corn team has grown over the years. While we still had the core from year one (Rex, Lynn, and I), we also added Larsen (Lynn's boyfriend), Katie Masters (our friend from ResLife), and Katie Hyde (Lynn's friend from her hometown). We assembled our team for Year Four and prepared to advance upon the corn, but we were met with DISASTER - the corn across from the barn had already been harvested!

Obviously, this just wouldn't do. We were not going to let a silly little detail such as "no corn" ruin our corn run! We decided to pile into Lynn's car and seek out a cornfield. We figured since we were in the middle of nowhere, there had to be one somewhere. So we all piled in (Katie Hyde was in the trunk), and we set off to find some corn. We weren't having much luck; the only suitable corn we found was at a farm down the road from the barn. The problem with this corn was that there was an entire corn field in front of it that had already been harvested and a valley in front of that field, so we would somehow have to cross the valley and then sprint across the open field before arriving at the field we wanted to run through. If we were seen, we would be in pretty big trouble because we had no idea who that field belonged to.

We decided that, despite the risks, the aforementioned field was going to be our best bet if we wanted to complete our corn run. We chose to drive back to the Barn Bash and then walk to the field from there so that we would not draw the suspicion of having a random car parked on the side of the road. We decided to cross the road outside of the Barn Bash and then walk to the field in the valley so that people wouldn't see us walking away from the party and ask us where we were going. We began by "nonchalantly" walking up to the pine tree at the very edge of the barn house yard. We tried to be quiet, and then we dashed across the road one at a time and ducked into the valley. Rex went first, and then Lynn. I ran after them, and as I neared I heard Rex whisper loudly, "Careful! There's a ton of water down here!" I dove onto the slope of the valley, but I was careful not to hit the bottom part where the water was. Rex continued his whisper warning to each additional "valley jumper" but then said, "Sh! No one tell Larsen about the water!" we all dissolved into giggles, which was (un)fortunately enough to warn Larsen that something was up, and he carefully jumped down the slope and did not hit the water.

We looked around, tried to stop laughing, and confirmed that everyone was present, dry, and ready for the next phase of the mission. All systems were go. Our next obstacle was to decide how to cross the watery bottom of the valley. With it being so dark out, we couldn't see exactly where the water was or how far it went. Katie Hyde volunteered to try it out, saying, "I can see the other side - I'm going to jump it!" She took a running leap, landed, and then we heard, "Ewwwwwwwww!! I landed right in the middle! Ewwww!! My foot and jeans are totally covered in mud! Ahhhh!" So obviously, we decided not to follow her.

We left Katie on the opposite side of the valley (poor girl; we had put her in the trunk earlier too) and told her we were going to find a different way to cross. We walked down the valley a little ways, looking for alternative methods. Our walk was peppered with the occasional "DUCK! CAR!" whenever we saw headlights, and we would drop and press ourselves into the tall grass so we wouldn't be discovered. About a quarter of a mile away we finally found a bridge of solid ground that crossed the valley, and we all crossed it safely to reunite with Katie.

When we crossed the land bridge, we were no longer protected from sight by being low in the valley. We stared ahead at the harvested corn field (corn stubs of about three inches or so stuck up everywhere), and we decided our best bet would be to sprint across the field to the tall corn that would once again offer us cover. We knew that being seen in the open field would invite lots of weird questions, and we wanted to avoid that by getting to the tall corn as quickly as possible.

With our decision made, Rex let out the battle cry of "LET'S GO!" and we all started running. It was difficult to avoid tripping on the corn stubs, but we had to soldier on. I told Katie that I felt like a part of the D-Day invasion. She agreed, but commented that there were considerably less guns involved. I was okay with this.

I was one of the first ones to reach the tall corn, and I turned around to nervously watch my comrades until we were all safely hidden. We took some victory pictures at having reached our destination, and we had some fun running around in the corn before we decided we should start heading back.

We walked to the edge of the tall corn field, and we prepared ourselves to start the long sprint back to the valley. After another vocal starting gun from someone, we started our run. About halfway through the run, I heard Rex whisper yell, "DUCK! FOR REAL! POLICE!!! GET DOWN!" We all dropped to the ground, which in retrospect was a HORRIBLE idea. What looks more suspicious than a group of twenty-somethings trying to hide themselves in three inch tall corn stubs!? My heart fell into my stomach, and we watched the police car turn its blue and red lights on. It was so dark out that the lights could have been fireworks, casting an eerie glow on all of us. We looked at each other nervously, and we watched in relief as the police car pulled over a car that had just turned the corner.

As soon as the two cars had stopped (thankfully facing away from our field), Rex said, "Okay. NOW! GO! RUN!" We all sprinted as quickly as we could back to the valley as the lights from the police car turned the corn stubs shades of red and blue.

When we all made it back to the valley, we looked at each other with wide-eyed relief. We were out of breath from running and from adrenaline. We crept back to the party as quickly as we could, casting weary glances over our shoulders every few steps at the occupied police car. When we arrived back into the yard of the barn, someone asked, "Where have you been?" and we replied in unison - far too loudly and quickly - "NOWHERE!" We would make horrible spies. We laughed at our ridiculousness and headed back into the barn.

Safely back at the party, we recounted our adventure and went back to the dance floor to celebrate our success. It was quite the night, and a wonderful finale to our years of barn bash corn shenanigans.