A journal entry from my first week at Chewonki:
“In seven days I have: milked two cows, had 4 dance parties, harvested and washed hundreds of potatoes, spun yarn, gone camping, prepared one meal for sixty people, washed a million plates, gotten seventeen mosquito bites, fed five cows, hiked one mountain, gone swimming twice, played countless “getting to know you” games, been to three days of classes, learned everything about five different species of trees, and made forty new friends.
I have never been more exhausted.
But, every night, as I am struggling to to keep my eyes open past ten o’clock, I am, for perhaps the first time in my life, totally at peace with everything I have accomplished.”
I spent much of my solo last weekend thinking about what has changed since that first week and what has made this place so important to me. The invigorating exhaustion I spoke of in that first journal entry undoubtedly remains, but as the list of activities gets longer I have found that the invigoration has intensified to an incomprehensible level. My connection to this community grows deeper and more important to me, and my presence and my pride in my achievements grow stronger and more valuable. I have developed a motivation that I have never experienced before; always pushing myself further to my contributions, better myself, and better our community here.
This is why I’m here.
-Nicole Smith
Hingham, MA
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