As a mother's day gift to you mama, I thought I would chronicle down the story of how my DnD group met because, as I've said before, it was too incidental to be a coincidence.
As some of you may know, this past semester in school, I was feeling a little out of sorts socially. Since I had just finished my violin recital and all lesson credits I needed to graduate, I had TONS of new found free time on my hands that I have never had as a college student. You wouldn't think not having to practice for an hour a day and lessons once a week would free up time, but it really did. I now had hours in a day left over after finishing homework. This, combined with the fact that while on my mission I discovered I liked people, made me start trying to have more of a social life. I went to club night at BYU for the first time ever (board game club), I started having more regular lunch dates with my friends, I even regularly attended church activities, which in turn got me my first semi-legit calling as a BYU YSA (relief society activities coordinator). But, I still felt like something was missing. I was getting tired of always being the one to reach out to suggest a lunch date, going out of my way to talk to new people at church activities, driving to club night every week. Of course, it wasn't always like that. I got invited on hikes, to dinners, even a birthday party, but it would come in these spurts of social activity and then... nothing. Not having regular social interactions made me feel unwanted, like I was annoying people when I asked them to hang out, just feeling grateful when others extended me invitations.
During this semester, I also started REALLY getting into DnD. Between the discovery of Critical Role podcasts, the first season of Vox Machina on Prime, our family campaign and a comic book store nearby with a heavy emphasis on RPG, I was craving the opportunity to use my new found knowledge. I remember specifically, there was one night where it was raining and for some reason, our family campaign we had been planning to play had fallen through. I had been looking forward to the game for probably the past 3 days, and when it was cancelled last minute, I got really down. Sitting in my apartment, rain pouring outside, my DnD stuff sitting next to me, I felt alone. I ended up calling Ethan and Rebecca for a bit, talking to them about wanting to play DnD, looking at "Provo DnD" groups on Facebook, inevitably hanging up the phone and feeling lonely again. Not thinking much of this experience, I continued to invite friends out to lunch. Eventually, about a week later, Hermana Gibson and I went out for tacos. As someone who enjoys honest conversation, when Hermana Gibson asked me what was new in my life, I told her about my growing interest in DnD, despite the lack of people in the area with which to play. She then told me about this guy she had met on Mutual who had also talked about playing DnD. They had only gone on one date and Hermana Gibson hadn't talked to him much since, but for some reason, she insisted on texting him about me and getting us connected.
She held up her end of the bargain and within a day or two, I had texted this guy about DnD, just waiting for a response. Within a few hours, he had texted back, saying he was about to quit his job and that he would have time to set up a new game. Best part was that he was an already experienced DM willing to run the game! All I needed to do was find one or two people to agree to play with us. Within 2 weeks, we met over zoom for a Session 0, setting up our characters, introducing the rules (specifically for Jenna, our brand new player to the game) and getting ready for the first real game. If I'm being honest, I wasn't completely sure of the group at first, but I was just happy with the hope that I might be able to play DnD with people in the area who were also interested in it. After session 0, Jenna invited her friend Liv to play with us, bringing our party up to a total of 5 players including the DM. By February, we had agreed on a day to meet and after driving Jenna and picking up Liv, we met for our first session.
As all new parties are, we were a little awkward in our characters and gameplay for a little bit, but after the initial session lasted longer than 6 hours with a dinner break in the middle, I had hope that our little group could go somewhere. Sure enough, we met the next week, and every week after that till the end of the semester. Admittedly, we had some bumps in the road with scheduling, but after that first session, I could tell this group was special. We all commented on how awesome the game was, and couldn't stop talking. Over the weeks and months, we invited each other for parties, pizzas, tv marathons, game nights. It wasn't just me inviting other people over, I had friends that invited me out, who wanted to talk to me and hear about my life, who I knew weren't annoyed or irritated when I invited them to do something. Friends who after a 7 hour game still wanted to sit and talk for another two till one of us started falling asleep. And I knew, having tried so hard to meet up with friends in the past, this was no coincidence that we had all met and ended up playing together. Fridays became a sacred time to play DnD, a day we all looked forward to throughout the week. It was a blessing and culmination of my efforts to find friends that cared.
At our final session before going onto zoom for the summer, I played them guitar, prefacing the song with the fact that I love music, and I love them, so I thought I'd combine the two. Every day, I thank Heavenly Father for that group who are unapologetically themselves, and who accept me for exactly who I am. Heavenly Father really is the master planner, and it is amazing to watch how he answers prayers and cures aching souls.
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