SFA and Driving Jacks Visit

I am on the planning committee for the 2014 Driving Jacks 5K as the Race Director. I planned the 5K in 2012, but I was in Africa for the 2013 race. Back in October my friend Hector asked if I was going to plan it for 2014 and I was hesitant. The race is a lot of work and a big time commitment as the race director and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be involved that heavily again. I said that if no one else wanted to be the race director, then I would as long as I had other alumni helping me. Luckily, there are 5 other alumni that are on the committee and a great chair of the Nacogdoches Driving Jacks committee (actual DJ members). The race was my idea back in 2012 so I want to see it continue each year. The way it is set up is that the DJ Alumni Committee plans the event and the Nac Committee help be our ‘feet on the street’ for things that we need done in Nacogdoches itself. We didn’t want the Nac Committee to have to do too much in terms of planning the race, we want them to focus on making Driving Jacks itself the best organization it can be.

So, I went up to Nac two weekends before Thanksgiving to do some stuff with the 5K route and a have a meeting with the new Driving Jacks President and Vice President. I left my house early that morning and made the drive to Nacogdoches. My plan was to run the route and do some other 5K stuff, but I didn’t end up making it to run the route (that came a few weekends later). Plus, I didn’t really want to have a meeting with the new Prez and VP all sweaty!

I spent my time shopping for new SFA gear (I got two new shirts!) and going around Nacogdoches to see what changes there were. This sign was at B&N and I thought it was hilarious! I didn’t get it though.

After the meeting with the new Prez and VP I was going to head home since it was getting late. I really wanted to meet some of the members of Driving Jacks at operations, so I stayed until they came in to volunteer. I was in the office with a DJ officer and a new member and they were asking me questions about the first night and the first semester. He asked me if I remembered what the first car was and I told him it was a Dodge Magnum. I asked if they had ever seen the pictures of the first night, but they hadn’t so I showed him all of my DJ pictures of that semester from my phone.

I went to hang out with the other members that were starting to congregate in the commons area. I was watching how they do the refresher now and it is super cool. The refresher is when they ask questions about DJ operations and how to respond. Instead of random slips of paper, they post the questions on the back of playing cards. <--they also="" are="" back="" compared="" day="" did="" fancy="" first="" how="" in="" it="" lol="" mode="" p="" semester="" survival="" that="" the="" to="" we="" were="">

One of the officers that was working that night introduced me to everyone. I told them who I was and that we are planning a 5K fundraiser again this year for them. Then I asked if they wanted to see pictures (they did), and I showed them the pics and told lots of funny/sad/sweet memories that I had. It was honestly my favorite time to ever go back to SFA as an alumni. I don’t know if it was because I was by myself and not in a group, but they asked me lots of questions and actually talked to me. Each time I had gone up there before I had always been in a group of people or with my friends so they never really asked us questions. I loved that I actually got to speak with them that weekend! Love me some DJ.


Afterwards I went to my car and was driving out when I saw the Austin building lit up in purple. So pretty! Please excuse the bad camera phone picture; it is much prettier in real life. The building is lit up for SFA’s 90^th anniversary.

I posted on FB about being at Nac to talk to the members about the early beginnings of Driving Jacks and tagged some people from that first semester. Old alumni were posting stories and pictures, it was great. Like I said, it was my favorite time to go up there ever!