Tuesday, June 10, 2003 at 7:52 AM 
Greetings all - 

My name is Daniel Leatherwood. Glancing over the list of names, my name is not likely to be known to any of you, with the possible exception of Ms. Harclerode, whom I've had the great pleasure of meeting. My immediate connection to you is quite simple - you're part of my team for this fall! Joy for me, we'll see what it means for you. I'll be one of your Themelios leaders, which means that I'll be one of the two people in charge over you (and your Peer Advisor) during the initial weekend at LeTourneau. More on that later. It also means that I have the responsibility of keeping in touch with you over the next semester - fortunately, I don't have to concern myself with your academic success as does your Peer Advisor. I have an inkling that you're all worth getting to know. Whether or not it is worth getting to know me in return is an interesting question - and one you'll have to answer for yourselves. 

Two initial things you may have already noted about me, based on the preceding paragraph. One is that I have a tendency to go on and on and on, and the other is that my writing style is vaguely reminiscent of Paul - with regard to sentence length. Semicolons, hyphens, and parenthesis are my friends :-). As are smilies. I'm not quite so fond of commas. I have nothing against periods - I just don't believe in using them before my thought is finished. In other news, I am nineteen; I'll be nearly twenty this fall when you see me. I'm entering my third year at LeTourneau. My major is Computer Science, and my minor is History/Political Science. I'll probably add a minor in Biblical Studies. I'm considering double majoring in both History and Computers, but it would entail another year at LeTourneau. I'm what the esteemed Scholl considers a "happy person" - and I'm quite glad of it. Not that he considers it a compliment. The esteemed Scholl (if you don't know who he is yet) is someone I'm greatly looking forward to introducing you to. More on that later. I am an MK, so don't ask me where I'm from unless you want a long answer. I'm not exactly FROM anywhere. When people ask me that question, I usually cite my birthplace (Bozeman, Montana. Scholl nearly died of shame when he heard that I was born in the same state as himself.).

If you don't like me at all yet, considering me rather pompous and long-winded, don't worry. Most of the people you meet will not be like me. If you don't know it yet, all of you are part of the Honors program, and this is an Honors team you are in. I am one of the "originals" - a member of the initial Honors class. And my hope and prayer is that you'll come to enjoy the Honors program (and LeTourneau itself) as much as I do. No matter who you are or what your personality is, you'll be able to find a friend (likely several of them) in the program. If you're cynical and critical, don't fail to look up Scholl, Wilson, and Gillis. If you're a fellow happy person (by the way, a special welcome to you all, because you're actually READING this! We need more of you), there's your team leader, Amy, Anna Olson, Anna Ross, Joy Cofer, and Taylor Wingerd just to name a few. If you're an intellectual, there are people you'll love. If you're impatient with intellectuals, don't miss Colin. If you're a fellow philosopher... well, I'm pretty much the closest you'll find to a philosopher, but you'll find a great many people who understand and enjoy philosophy. If you're a realist, you have company. If you're an idealist, you have even more company. We (we being the Honors program) are looking forward to meeting you very much. We've devised a few evil tests to determine just what kind of person each of you is, so that we can more readily induct you into what it means to be part of the Honors group. To me, being an Honors student is a realization of how little your grades mean coupled with a desire for understanding and an appreciation for wisdom and an desire to communicate with the other members of the program - both to speak and to listen.

I was scared entering the program. So scared, in fact, that I almost didn't. I was afraid of the competition. I was afraid of entering a group where everyone would consistently make me look bad. I was afraid to enter because I thought it would be a constant grades competition, everyone struggling to be the "best". I can tell you honestly that the Honors group is not at all like that. We hardly ever discuss grades - there's almost a tacit taboo against it. Perhaps more than any other group of people, we are in a place to understand how little grades mean. I love talking with people in the program. We can discuss anything at all. We can discuss a better way to design napkins, the nutritional value of pizza, the quality of Solomon's argument in Ecclesiastes, the future of math, and the proper design for higher education. I can honestly say I love the people. Perhaps the most important thing to realize is that there are people JUST LIKE YOU in this program. They understand things about you that perhaps no one else has ever understood about you before. And I want you to be a part of that. Some of you aren't interested, some of you will drop out, and some of you will simply drift along without caring. To me, that's terribly sad. But some of you will enter. Some of you will open up. Some of you will add yourselves to what the Honors program means and in doing so, change it and make it better and stronger. I want to get to know you all, but not all of you will want to get to know me. Some of you - maybe only one, hopefully more - will, and I dearly want to get to know you better.

I wonder how many of you are still reading. It's likely a sizeable percentage of you aren't - I know that most of my friends in the program would have given up by now. There's only one more thing I want to tell you - and that is about the first weekend at school, the one Themelios is in charge of. You will be asked to do things in that weekend that will probably make you uncomfortable. We'll be playing some of those icebreaker games that some of you hate with a passion. I'm giving you advance warning for this reason: I was talking with some of my friends from last year who said that they found the initial weekend a total waste of time. They hate "get to know you" games with a passion and therefore were miserable. One of them said that he was willing to make a fool out of himself, but only if he was given a reason. So I want to give you a reason: because you are surrounded by people who are as uncomfortable and awkward as you are. Because you are surrounded by people like you who also don't want to play these games but who do want to find a friend - someone who understands. As soon as you grasp this, the purpose of this games have been fulfilled. We play these games for a reason, and maybe it's a lousy means to an end (particularly for an Honors group), but the reason is a good one - and it is coincident with you own desires. We want you to get past your own embarrassment and fear and nerves and impatience and reticence and look around - and find that you are surrounded by friends. If we can accomplish that over the first weekend, the weekend will be lightyears from a waste of time.

I honestly DO want to hear from you all. If you only write me to tell me that my letter was WAY too long and wordy and drawn-out and useless, I'll be glad. If you write me to say that even if you don't care for the style in which this letter is written, you appreciated what was said, I'll be even gladder. (and if some brave and foolish soul among you is willing to write and say that you liked the letter, style and all, I'll be really, really glad.) I won't be writing like this often - I may get so lazy that you never hear from me again. So don't fear more spam from me. If you do write back, I can be reached either at my LeTourneau address (where I'll send this out), or my standard one, which is littlejedi@hotmail.com. Make sure to make your subject line distinctive if you write my Hotmail, or I won't be able to spot it and fetch it out of my junk mail.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Nehemiah Leatherwood.

P.S. You have a great Peer Advisor.

P2S. My fellow Themelios leader is Peggy Martin. Don't worry, she's not like me.

P3S. The attached picture is me; I though I should send you all a mug shot. :->