Few gatherings across the seven seas, all the continents, and across state lines can encompass the display of sheer athleticism exhibited in the Jones College Baptist Student Union’s “Office Chair Olympics.” Seven high-adrenaline gauntlets showcase each Olympian’s prowess by means of unorthodox office chair shenanigans. In my journalistic years, I’ve never seen something so gritty, impressive and downright unapologetic.
The most intense of the events had to have been office chair basketball; 12 gladiators went toe-to-toe risking life and limb in clashes that were comparable to bumper-car battles at the fair. With the glory of victory also comes the pain of loss, as the event I partook in, office chair curling, was sabotaged by our own chair. “You just had to be there” said one Olympian upon being asked how one can prepare for such a task as competing in the Games. Then it happened: a competitor struck gold and won two different competitions and came up to me and said, “As I succeeded in several of the colosseum-esque trials, I felt as if the world was upon my shoulders: like I was truly meant to be carved of marble and displayed on a pedestal of granite. The limelight doth not come easy, yet it speaks to me in a language only I can understand.”
Merely because this catalogue of games exists in a house of the Lord does not mean that it isn’t worth following. I am truly impressed by the might, intrigued by the competitiveness, and intimidated by the skill of these ‘Office Olympians.’ They have honed their craft. They have found their calling. They have done it all.
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Spectacle is the only word imaginable when the height of talent is amassed in the Jones College Fine Arts Building. If one were to say that they could predict how the talent show was going to pan out on that fateful September evening, they’d be wrong. I, in fact, was one of those critics that had a preconceived notion of how boring I assumed the event would be. It is with great joy, humility and grace that I admit to being wonderfully wrong.
I went into that auditorium expecting to be bored for roughly two hours, but what surprised me most was the raw energy emanating from the crowd, particularly from that of the BSU group. “The energy was electronic…” said an attendee after I asked what exactly he was feeling after cheering on one of the first talents. I felt as though I was in a different world as the events went on. The act that stuck with me most, in all seriousness, was the BSU band singing, “This Little Light of Mine.” I was truly blessed to have heard them, and I am glad that an outside group like that from the Baptist Student Union was able to take part and share their message through song. Even after the talent show ended and as I was leaving, I was encompassed by not only those previously watching the show, but the performers themselves. Being so close to such talent made me want to learn some new ability as well as become a better man.
When I asked one of the performers after the fact how long they took to prepare for their act, I was simply told “No.” Clearly with the amount of secrecy and mysticism regarding the performer -who I shall keep nameless – I should have expected such a reply. Possibly what surprised me the most out of the whole night was the sheer amount of talent we have at our wonderful college. It truly was a blast. 11/10, will most definitely attend again.
by Walker Robinson
