Chapter nine in our reading (Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. - Sullivan, 2008) was about throwing out the rule book. Instead of writing a "normal" blog about a commercial, advertisement, or something directly related to marketing, I am going to write a story. A good ad resonates with its audience. It relates to them and causes them to feel a particular way. Stories do the same thing. They evoke certain emotions from us and peak human interest - especially if they are true. That is why most people love listening to stories. I feel that if you can tell a good story, you can most likely write a good ad. I am going to do a little practice writing some stories of my own. Bear with me as I am in no way a novelist. This story is about my experience on a missions trip that I took with my younger sister and high school youth group to Mississippi.
When my sister Katie and I signed up to go to Mississippi with our high school youth group and help out with hurricane relief, we expected it to be just that. Hop on a 3 hour plane ride, rebuild some houses, help some people out, serve the Lord, come home and feel great about "making a difference." However, upon arriving the first thing they did was sit us down and dish out all the rules for the week. (Alterior motives are ALWAYS suspected when going anywhere with a group of adolescents - something that usually pissed me off back in the day) The woman in charge went on and on about dress code and curfews and this policy and that policy, all the while with a huge smile plastered to her face and ending every explanation with "but I'm sure ya'll wont give us any problems with that this week" in her slow southern drawl. Katie and I glanced at each other. This was not a serve trip. This was prison!
One of the many rules that "the bug" (the woman in charge soon earned this nickname as she had very large and protruding eyes that seemed to see everyone, thing, and thought that went in and out of the church complex) had given was that we were not allowed to visit the beach. The lame, "maybe we better play it safe" reason behind this was something stupid about all the debris left behind from the hurricane being potentially dangerous etc. etc. There were two strong forces of nature working against me that week. One was the irresistible draw of the beach, and the other was that age-old human impulse that tells you "rules are made to be broken." Despite my instincts I tried to be good and respect all of the bug's rules. Katie and I would work with the group all day cleaning up houses and completing odd jobs. We befriended some boys from a church in Texas who were fun to work with too, but during free-time all I could think about was that blasted beach. By the middle of the week I had made up my mind that we were going!
Katie and I began to devise a plan. It would be difficult, the bug's rules prohibited anyone from leaving their room after 10:00pm. We would need the boys from Texas for bodyguards (we were staying in a pretty shady neighborhood) and the boys rooms were at the opposite end of the complex. The bug had a camper stationed exactly in between the boys rooms and the girls rooms, and directly in front of the main gate. She also had a cat that prowled around at all hours of the night with an exceptionally loud meow. Katie and I were almost positive the cat doubled as her spy. The best way out of our room was through the bathroom window. However, the window was way to high to crawl through by yourself from the ground, so Katie and I would have to recruit another girl to help us out. We decided on our friend Lauren. Lauren had been on the cheerleading team with me and I knew she was fully capable of building a stunt to reach the window. We planned the escape for the last night of our stay for two reasons; 1) it wouldn't matter if we were tired because we were leaving first thing in the morning and would be able to just pass out on the plane ride home, and 2) the bug made it VERY clear that if anyone got caught breaking the rules they would make no hesitation to put us on the next plane home, which made our plan foolproof because even if we did get caught and our reputation went to the dogs, we would be on that plane ride home regardless. Our plan was perfect.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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