For four months I get to call South Hall my home. It’s red with a moss covered roof and fairly spacious on the inside. It sits on lower field with one other cabin, Binnacle. Every morning and night to and from our cabin we have to walk gingerly along the boardwalk or else we’ll slip and fall. Before coming here I spent lots of time thinking about my cabin. I had never lived with other people my age before, let alone shared one big space. I wondered how that would be, hoped we would get along. 

When I first arrived I was greeted by a cabin-mate at the front door and she helped unload my bags. I engaged in small conversations with someone else when unpacking but was still very nervous. I wasn’t in the cabin very much the rest of that day or days following. When I was, we didn’t talk much, we just went to sleep. In the second week, two members of my cabin tested positive for COVID and we had to be together more often, including eating all meals together for 10 days. It sounds weird to say that sickness hitting South Hall made us closer, but it really did. We ¨bonded¨ over the shared experience. It resulted in us making funny get well soon cards, food reviews, and late night talks sitting on each other’s beds. I learned so much about my two cabin mates in the time we spent together.  And when we were rejoined by the rest of our cabin it felt different; better. We talked more, stayed up later, and learned more about each other. We now have a cabin quotes book. We have a cabin group chat where we send updates throughout our day. And every Sunday after dinner we spend an hour cleaning our very messy cabin for cabin check laughing over how messy it will be again by morning.  

Being in a cabin is such a unique experience, and one I really love.

Isabella Scurti, C. Milton Wright High School, Bel Air, MD