My Experience At Protocol 2021

Hello everyone! I wanted to share all the details of Protocol because, why not? For those of you who don’t know what protocol is, I’m going to explain for you! Protocol is a formal event that Classical Conversations Challenge students participate in. It’s kinda like the homeschool version of prom, except this is not a dating event. You do have a partner or escort who will open the door for you, pull out/push in the chair for you etc. This event is designed to teach high-schoolers the importance of the proper protocol in formal settings.

This was my first protocol and there were so many things that happened so I am going to try and do justice to explain all the things that happened at protocol March 19, 2021. Everything started around 1 pm. It took me a little bit to get ready but it wasn’t bad. Then we all (dad, mom, Courtney, and I) went to the lake to meet up with everyone for pictures. The wind was a little cold but it wasn’t bad. We got several different combinations of people in the pictures, one of the dads (Mr. Cagle) took the pictures for us. He did a good job and was really funny too! It was cloudy, but it didn’t start raining until we got into the cars. There was also a wedding taking place and we saw several brides maids and the bride and groom.

The ride to BJU was pretty uneventful, we talked some but that was about it. The GPS took us to the BJU printing press which was close by to the college thankfully so we found it pretty easily. Helena Godfrey (she is in my class) and Katie Cagle (she is in the class above us) rode with us. When get got the the culinary arts, we all walked into the front area which was kinda cramped. The restaurant was lot smaller than I expected. There were about 10 tables each seating 4. We took up 5 tables. I sat with Mrs. Cagle, Mrs. Alt, and Courtney. I wanted to sit with my classmates but we weren’t able to do that. The other two kids tables were so close by so we could talk some. The room was somewhat dimmed but since it was sunny out it wasn’t that dim in the room. The ceiling was lined with small lights. The tables had black table cloths and there were two center pieces. One was a small bowl with blue liquid in it and some white flowers floating in it. The other was a tall cylinder with a lighter blue liquid in it and marbles inside with a candle floating at the top. Logan Grasty escorted me to my seat and we had a bit of trouble finding my spot.

For dinner, we had a choice for our appetizer, entree, and dessert. The soup and salad was one option. First we had soup. They brought us ‘Tomato consomme’, it was more like a broth. It was pretty good though. Next was appetizers. There were three choices. (1) Jumbo lump crab cake, (2) fried goat cheese pierogis, and (3) prosciutto wrapped pear. I chose the pear, but they most have got mixed up and brought me the crab. I really liked it so it was fine. Salad came next. Quinoa salad was what they gave us as salad. I didn’t really like it, but I did like the cranberries and apricots. For the entree, we had 4 choices. (1) butternut squash wellington, (2) chicken milanese, (3) lamb chops, and (4) grilled salmon. I chose the salmon and I absolutely loved it! Lastly for dessert, there were two choices: dulce de leche coconut cake or profiterole trio. I chose the trio which was cream puffs one chocolate, one raspberry, and one lemon. I liked those too! Once we finished eating, we had to leave pretty quickly. My escort didn’t escort me out because he had another girl to escort and we were a little confused and in a hurry. We got to the theater a couple minutes late but we didn’t miss anything. We saw a play of Prince Caspian from the Narnia series. I have grown up with Narnia so I was really excited when I found out we were watching that. I was not prepared for how good that play was. The actors were spot on, props amazing, and they had several special effects I didn’t think was possible without CGI.

A couple spiritual aspects in the play stood out to me. One was at the part when Aslan tells Lucy is told to follow him even if she is alone. It reminded me that we must follow Christ and His will even if we are only one. In the play, when Lucy decides to follow Aslan even though the others won’t, the others end up going with her anyway. When we chose to take that step and follow, others may see your action and follow as well. The other part that stuck out to me was when Peter is about to fight Miraz. Edmond asks something like “Do you think you can do this?” and Peter replies with “I’ll start and Aslan will finish” Peter didn’t know for sure that Aslan was going to come through, yet he kept going in faith. In the same way, we need to press on and walk in faith even when we don’t see God working. The last thing that stuck out to me was towards the end of the play, the victory has been won, and they are all celebrating with Aslan. Aslan asks Caspian if he is ready to be king. Caspian replies with “No, I don’t think so” Aslan answers “Good. If you would have said you were ready that would have proven that you are not” Many times we don’t feel ready or equipped to do something, but it is good because then we can let God work through us, and He gets all the glory.

Once the play was over, we went up to the front of the room and got to talk to a couple of actors. We talked to the lady who played Caspian’s nurse and she gave us back stage passes and so we got to see the puppets/ robots for Caspian’s horse and Aslan. We got to talk to more actors and get pictures with them. Anther thing that was really cool was they had the original armor used in the movie Prince Caspian!

The ride back home was pretty quite and we got home around 1am, we were all exhausted but it was so worth it! I had an absolute blast and hope to go again if I participate in Challenge 2 next year.