As we once again return to the Hill for another year filled with life, love, learning and lorp, one of the most common struggles a student faces is re-acclimatizing to both the community and schedule that is in place here at Kenyon. For many, it is a rude awakening: for those who did not have summer jobs or internships, the prospect of having to be mentally and physically present anywhere before 11:00 AM other than your family home’s rec room where you passed out last night on the couch after eating three plates of nachos while watching Nick @ Nite until it was light out is a cruel absurdity.

Luckily for me, I spent my summer working at an sleepaway, coed, ages 8-15 summer camp for 10 weeks, and therefore have made an oddly seamless transition into life back at Kenyon, for what I learned over the summer is that is that being a counselor at camp and being a student at Kenyon are actually eerily related experiences. So for those of you who never had the pleasure of experiencing it, I have boiled down the essential highlights of camp life to show you how similar to college it really is. Enjoy, and don’t forget your movement clothes.

1. Communal living – If you think privacy is a luxury in dorm life, imagine having to share a 10 x 10 wooden hut with a literal horde of children, whose only true pleasure in life seems to be that of sitting on your bed and rubbing their sandy feet into your pillow. Now living in a New Apt single, I find myself almost missing the feeling of ten pairs of eleven-year-old eyes, staring at me and asking me endless questions as I gracefully try to peel myself out of a wet one-piece bathing suit. At least I still get to share a bathroom! Continue reading →