The Table, the Garden and the Storm

When you enter the office of the J. N. Andrews Honors Program, the first thing you see is a small table, dominated by a hot water urn and filled to bursting with colorful packets of tea, shiny envelopes of hot chocolate, and usually at least one bowl of trail mix or pretzels. Sometimes there are sunshiny clementines, or an assortment of apples, or crackers and crumbly chunks of cheese. Chances are there’s at least one student hovering at this table, an overstuffed backpack on the ground at their feet, loading up on snacks before rushing to their next class. The table is way station and welcome and destination all in one. It’s by far the smallest of the three tables in the Honors office, dwarfed by the round table tucked into the back corner and the long table in the adjoining conference room, where study groups meet and upperclassmen help freshmen with their final papers. But to me—and, I suspect, to many other past and present students in Andrews University’s Honors program—that first little table is the most important.

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