Friday, March 14, 2008

Free For All Friday

Oohhh... how I love Free For All Fridays.  There is so much collective creativity among our blog readers, that I inevitably walk away with at least one or two memorable ideas.  Last week we helped Stacie, the woman looking for promotional ideas for her massage business (P.S.  she had her beautiful baby boy on March 7.  His name is Lucian and he was 7 pounds , 12 ounces).  We also passed along some suggestions to Anonymous who was looking for ways to help her toddler. This week we go from moms to graduating seniors.  Put on your thinking caps and lets send some creative ideas to Anonymous who posted...

I have a creativity predicament for you!  I am currently a senior in college preparing to graduate in early May 2008.  I would like to create a small keepsake for my closest friends to remember our time spent together over the past 4 years.  I am a college student, after all, so it can't be anything to expensive, but definitely needs to be something creative and from the heart!  Any help with ideas for this gift would be greatly appreciated.
Once again, in no particular order....
  • Build a day:  Make special invitations, inviting everyone to reserve a particular day when the group will take a stroll down memory lane.  Meet early in the morning and have everyone write down one of their favorite things to do with the group.  Experiences might be things such as eating at a particular restaurant, meeting at a particular place on campus for coffee each week, watching movies in someone's residence hall room, or shopping at a local thrift store or retail store.  Once each person has noted their favorite experience on a paper, seal them in envelopes and mix them up.  Then, randomly draw your first card from the stack and go about your business completing the activity.  Move through the rest of the day in random order, doing whatever the next card says.  It doesn't matter if they aren't in a sensible or efficient order. That's part of what will make it memorable.
  • Something survivor-like:  I'm not an expert on this show, but I seem to remember when it gets down to the final two, the remaining contestants do a walk, carrying their torches and paying tribute to each person who left them game before they did.  As they stop at the torch symbolizing each person, the finalists say something nice about the person.  Maybe you could do a final walk of campus - stopping along the way to pay tribute to each member of your group.  If you really wanted to be fancy, you could plant photographs ahead of time at particular campus locations. Consider beginning late afternoon one day and finishing at dusk in a meaningful location.  If everyone is of-age, you could arrange to have champagne at the final destination (if not, some crazy dean of students might track you down).  
  • Seal a Time Capsule:  Have each person bring one thing to commemorate their college experience.  Place the items in a box, wrapped in plastic wrap and packaging tape.  Bring a shovel and some flowers then find a non-descript location on campus.  Bury the time capsule and plant your flowers on top as a marker.  Then you and your friends could make a pact to meet back at campus in a designated period of time to unseal the capsule.  This could be extra fun if everyone also wrote a letter to themselves, to be put in the capsule and not read until the capsule is opened.
  • Last Will and Testament: Purchase a container for each friend and then ask each person participating to a bring a momento and a note to be placed in each other's boxes.  If you have six friends participating, you would have five momentos - one for each of your five friends. Items can be representative of your relationship with one another.  It could be the same thing for everyone (for me, a Starbucks card is how most would remember me) or it could be something different for each person (a favorite t-shirt or yours, a CD they kept asking to borrow).  If you like the sealing-concept from the time capsule, you could seal the boxes and agree on a future date and time when they will be opened.  I might be in Texas, you might be in... say Virginia..., but at 6:00 p.m. one designated day, we all stop what we are doing and open our box.
That's my attempt to help.  Good luck and CONGRATULATIONS on graduating... an accomplishment for which you should be VERY proud.  Amy.. if you are out there... you are the queen of bringing closure.  Maybe you will weigh in with a post.  

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