So I'm bored on a rainy Saturday morning and I figured it's about time I updated all of you on my life here. Lots of things are happening - mostly exciting things - especially as the year winds to a close.
My a cappella group finished recording our CD last weekend. It sounds sooo good and I'd be happy to send a copy to anyone who wants one! Unfortunately I don't have any solos (a Chewonki sacrifice... but worth it) but if you listen hard I bet you can hear me in the background. OH and classic Westminster story: in our a cappella concert a couple of Fridays ago we sang Teenage Dream. It went really well and everyone liked it, but afterwards both deans approached me and said that if we didn't censor the "wildly inappropriate" lyrics, we wouldn't be able to put it on the CD. Yay for conservative Christian schools! So even though we were pissed at the deans (and several other teachers that thought it was their divine purpose to approach us throughout the day to air their disgust), we changed the lyrics.
Here's a little snippet.
Instead of:
"I'm gonna get your heart racing In my skin-tight jeans Be your teenage dream tonight
Let you put your hands on me In my skin-tight jeans Be your teenage dream tonight"
We said:
"We can do some wholesome fun family-friendly things, Be your teenage dream tonight
We could go to AMC [a movie theater], see a G movie, Be your teenage dream tonight"
So now the a cappella CD is certified fun for the WHOLE family!!!! Now that's something we can ALL appreciate!
Other things... It's starting to get very hot down here and I'm struggling as hard as I can to resist the frattire busting out all over Westminster campus. Typical spring/summer wear here is some kind of pastel polo (has to be the brand!) collared shirt with very short khaki shorts and sperries/top siders. Which, as I'm sure you all remember, is my trademark wardrobe! NAHT. So I'm pushing the limits and continuing to wear flannels (but with shorts now). I will not stop until I get heatstroke. This is my pledge. Also, I've been going out of dress code for the past two months (badass) by wearing Chacos to school (which apparently guys aren't allowed to wear). My dean finally caught me the other day but - get this - said that he wouldn't give me a detention "because I went to Chewonki." I'm still trying to figure out whether that was some kind of backhanded insult. Hm. But i guess it's another Chewonki perk!
I got a record player a couple of weeks ago and I'm in love. As of right now my collection consists of the Fleet Foxes album, "Hymns for a Dark Horse" by Bowerbirds (my favorite one!), "For Emma Forever Ago" by Bon Iver, and the Valley Maker album all on vinyl. Small but wonderful. I think my next addition is going to be "Age of Adz" by Sufjan Stevens. It's incredible. By the way for those of you who I didn't tell about Valley Maker, you REALLY need to check out his music. He wrote an album about the stories from Genesis (though I don't think he's a Christian) for his senior thesis project in college. It's phenomenal.
I also visited the North a couple of weeks ago! I knew that the only way I would get to convince my parents to take me back to Chewonki would be to disguise it as a college trip, and that's exactly what I did. It was so, so wonderful seeing everyone (Noah, Sarah, Carolyn, Nicole, Nick, Maggie, Francesca, at different points in the trip). It was also very nice to go back to Chewonki because - unlike what I had been told by every alumni I know - it was not a weird experience at all to see the new semester there. For me it was reassuring. Seeing the "new" semester making so much out of their time there and loving each other like we did just made me very happy that another group of (most likely) amazing people could experience what we did. So I feel very settled and at terms with the fact that we have passed on the torch. Believe me, they're very happy and loving it there! It was a little weird to see Bredman with long hair and a beardless Peter Sniffen, but other than that it was a nice time to reconnect with everyone and meet some new 46 friends. I also came away from the trip with a completely different short list of colleges than I expected. I thought that I wanted to go to College of the Atlantic before I went on the trip, but when I got there I realized it just wasn't for me (but it was nice to see Addie Namnoum!). Coming away from the trip, I liked Dartmouth and Bowdoin the best, so we'll see what happens there.
I can't really think of anything else that new in my life. Things are actually going pretty well down here, so long as I don't let myself get down about things that tend to bother me. I'm still struggling a little with being antisocial outside of my really close group of friends, but I think it's getting better. Feelings of nostalgia are few and far between now that I've seen the new semester so happy. And my garden! I wish I could go take a picture of it for all of you (I will soon). My garden has been the mainstay and respite for me in my rocky transition home. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I go look at my Red Russian Kale, my Swiss Rainbow Chard, my Cherrybelle Radishes, or my Astro Arugula, among other plants, and feel immensely better. I also love the work I'm doing expanding the organic garden at Westminster. We just got through transplanting tomatoes, watermelons, zucchini, basil, squash, and blueberry bushes this week. Working in the Westminster garden is my main extracurricular and I really love doing it. No joke, my title is "Gardener-Educator" because I teach classes to freshmen about sustainability and local food every couple of weeks. Megan Phillips was delighted to hear about our similar titles.
I hope all of you are doing well, and I send out good vibes and love to all of you across the country. I want to issue an apology -- I feel that I've been really, really bad about keeping in touch with people recently. Please know that I still love all of you and it isn't anything personal. I've been swamped with work lately and just haven't had time to commit steadily to these relationships. But as the year winds down I will definitely be reaching out more! Please text me/call me (404-803-4433) because I really want to hear about all of your lives.
See you guys around ;)
Ben
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