My new best lunch buddies

Who knew the key to gaining entry to the lives of college students was a crock pot full of pulled pork?

Well, actually, everyone knows free food will get college kids’ attention. And I used that knowledge to my advantage this summer to get to know the college students performing with Amy in the summer theater program in Mt. Pleasant.

Not knowing my college-kid’s friends is a bummer. One of my favorite parts of being a mom has been knowing my kids’ friends. So when my oldest two unceremoniously up and left for college, I realized how much I hated not knowing who they would talk about when we’d chat.

Well, thankfully, Amy’s school is only an hour from us and I have been able to get to know a few of her friends as we've visited or seen shows, but I don’t know them well. So when Amy told us she would be staying at school and working with 11 of her friends this summer I realized this was my chance to really get to know some of her people. All I had to do was show up armed with a crock pot, chips and cookies.

Now, cooking for college kids once a week this summer was not on my to-do list. (Cooking for my own family once a week isn't exactly on my to-do list.) But once Amy and I talked about me bringing dinner to the CMU Summer Theater students once a week, I realized the upside to getting to know her friends far outweighed the downside of grocery shopping. And cooking. Man, I am over cooking…

Anyway, once a week for five weeks this summer, I hauled up food from DeWitt to Mt. Pleasant. The first week I did a sandwich platter. Not. Enough. Food. It was crock pot city after that.

Five lunches. In hindsight, it’s really not that much. But during those five lunches I got to know each of the students by name and a little about them. Once I saw a little too much of Zach G., because he came to lunch in his costume, which was boxer shorts, but I was in the green room so what did I expect?

It seemed only fitting that we’d spend the last day of summer with our favorite group of new friends. Sean, Rebecca and I took up pulled pork, chips, carrots, grapes, cupcakes and brownies. We had dinner with them this time and it was really fun to see them again. We’d spent time with them in Mt. Pleasant, on Beaver Island, and in Whitehall. But we finished like we started, in the green room on CMU’s campus.

To Amy, Katie, Tyler, Zach, Allie, Anthony, Will, Emily, Dani, Claire, Zach and Lainey, thanks for sharing part of your lunch breaks with me. You are totally worth cooking for. Love y’all! 

We love because He first loved us. I John 4:19