Winter Blues? Here’s How Four Students Made a Memorable Winter Break
By Zachary Bearnson and Weston Lamoreaux
Winter Break is a time to recharge after a semester of hard work and long classes. For some students at Southern Virginia however, the time over break was spent doing more than relaxing.
Aiden Darrington, Music Major ’22, had a very musical break, during which he and a friend from high school recorded a single. Darrington described the experience saying, “ I had a friend in high school who wanted to record a song. That was one of his big goals. He wanted to get together over winter break.” Darrington also shared this goal and had some previous experience with music production in the past.
Of the production process, Darrington said, “I booked the studio for a few days, we spent a day writing the song which is pretty good for a single, and then we spent another day recording. The recording process took about seven or eight hours and that’s pretty average for a single. We finished up the process the day before I headed out to come back from school.”
Darrington completed the project under the band name Personal Atlas and the song is called “Shelter.” A link to the song on Spotify can be found here, or on your preferred music streaming platform.
While Darrington was fulfilling their musicians’ dream, another student made memories in South America.
Jennifer Brotherson, Liberal Arts ‘19, traveled to Santiago, Chile, to visit family. Her parents, Carrie and Todd Brotherson, have been serving as mission presidents for the past six months.
While in Chile, Brotherson was able to see a few popular sites in the area. She hiked San Christobal Hill which towers high above Santiago. She also visted the beach Visa Del Mar and a marketplace called Lucia Cerro with her younger sister, Grace. When asked about her trip, Brotherson said, “It was like going home.”
And while Brotherson was making memories of her South American home, two Southern Virginia students were making a home of their own.
On Dec. 28th, Quinton Peck, Politics ’19, and Mary Hale traveled to the Manti, Utah temple to get married. After months of complicated planning, it all came together for Peck and Hale. They had what they described as a “beautiful wedding and reception.” When asked about what it was like to be a married man, Peck jokingly replied, “I no longer have opinions about anything!”
The Pecks weren't the only ones making new memories as a family. Bailey Pfunder, Music Ed Major ’21, spent part of the break in California visiting Disneyland and watching the Holiday bowl with family. “We were down there for a week,” Pfunder said, “All 18 of my family members went down for a big family trip. We went down to see Utah in the holiday bowl, which we lost but it was still fun anyway!”
