Off Campus Birthday

by Eddie Sonnie

Christopher Newport may be a relatively small school, but there’s big fun to be had around town, and don’t worry, it won’t break your budget, either. My birthday is April 25, but I have a final on that day, so instead, I decided to celebrate early! My friends from home are usually the people I spend my birthday with, and they’re only about 45 minutes away from Christopher Newport, so they had no problem coming here to visit. One of my best friends’ birthdays is on April 17, so we decided that this would be a joint-birthday celebration, and let me tell you, that was a crazy fun day. 

The original plan was for us to have a whole day of fun, and while that part didn’t change, the weather, unfortunately, got in the way. The plan was to go to Busch Gardens in the morning (we all have season passes, so that’s technically free), next, we would grab some lunch and head back to campus, play Dungeons and Dragons (it’s not as nerdy as it sounds – don’t knock it till you try it!), then go to Rebounderz, which is a place where they have entire rooms with trampolines on the floor and walls, and it was really cool. We were able to do everything except the Busch Gardens part, but that’s OK! We still had a blast!

Rebounderz is only about 15 minutes away from campus, and they had a deal for three hours of play for $20 per person, which is definitely a lot of fun for cheap, if you ask me! We were thinking of other things that we could do off-campus, and in the end, we decided that there were too many options to just choose one thing, so we are going to have another fun day coming up soon! Some of the highlights will include movies, bowling, ice skating and who knows what else! 

There are literally so many things to do within a short radius of our campus that I think anyone can find their favorite spot. My friends and I learned that Rebounderz isn’t our thing, ha-ha. That was our first time going, and, apparently, being on a trampoline at 20 years old is a lot more taxing than when we were 10. But that’s OK! Because we stepped out of our comfort zone and still had fun laughing at each other when we got winded on a trampoline! I think we might just stick to bowling, now that I think about it, last time we went ice skating, I almost broke my ankles! If I’ve learned anything at Christopher Newport, it’s that challenging yourself is always great, but don’t break anything trying to push yourself!