I remember first hearing our cabin assignments over Zoom, and finding out I was in Orchard cabin with five other girls. In our first meetings together I thought to myself, can this really work? We were all strangers with life experiences that were so vastly different. I wondered how we would ever go from strangers to friends, as suggested by the promising blog posts I read before coming here. Why on earth did I think it was a good idea to randomly move in with five girls to a cabin that needed Read More

This weekend before Halloween, the whole of our semester gathered. We all sat on Orchard field in the dimming sunlight. We circled together as cabin units, and the faculty formed a circle to hug our own. Theirs was large and loose, while we held a brittle tension among us. I got to look around at the people who have been so present in every day of my life since coming here. It was my last chance before solos. The wind brisked around us and the birds chirped on trees that leaned over the field. Read More

October 26th - a day for the books. It was a cool and sunny day, with scattered showers throughout. It felt as a normal day would, but little did I know I was in for a surprising treat. We had finished our morning classes and were gearing up for our small journey to Spartina point, where the Salt Marsh lies. We were given dark green, full leg-length boots that would crease as we walked and made us all look like fishermen. When we got to Spartina point we sat in the salt marsh hay and took Read More

Classes had finished for the day and I had an hour or so before my chores began. I ran back to my cabin with a friend, eager to break in my overalls. I rifled through my stack of folded t-shirts, hoping to find one to wear underneath. I settled on one and threw on a pair of boots as well. Then, we hurriedly gathered at the farm. At this time, the sun lingered on into the evening, bringing its warmth along with it. Though that was only a few weeks ago, the environment has changed since: the Read More

In the days before welcoming Semester 65, Julie Barnes, our Dean of Students, sent out a message which resonated deeply with our learning community and has been on our minds ever since. Julie spoke of a passage from the book The Great Tide Rising by Kathleen Dean Moore. This excerpt was about the eruption of Mount Saint Helen in 1980 and how scientists believed that all life would be wiped out from the mountain, and that it would not return for centuries. The author comments: "What the Read More

Yesterday morning I arrived at the circular patch of grass that has been my science classroom for the last few months to find a pile of binoculars and birding books. This is by no means an unusual occurrence. Last week it was magnifying glasses, and before that, it was a pile of eastern white pine branches. I was immediately excited to hear what we were going to be doing today. My teacher and cabin parent, Megan, did not disappoint. She excitedly announced that we would be watching birds. Our Read More

Last week I had a chore called Barn Check. Barn Check isn't like a normal chore we have in the morning; it’s a volunteer position, and it's during the evening. After dinner every day for a week, I would go to the farm with a partner to help get it ready for the night. We walked through the big greenhouse, and closed the doors to that, and then we walked down the hill to the chickens. We made sure all the chickens were in their coop, and shut their doors for the night. In all, the barn check for Read More

Polar Bear When my alarm goes off, my eyes open wide. In only 20 minutes, I’ll be jumping into the freezing ocean in the middle of October. I whisper to my cabin mate, “Hey, wake up...it’s time for the polar bear dip.” She opens her eyes slowly and then says, “Wait… What’s happening?” After a quick reminder of where we are going and why we chose to do this at the ungodly hour of 6:45 on a Saturday morning, she hops out of bed and we start mentally preparing ourselves for the bitter cold. We zip Read More

I came to Chewonki expecting full crunchy granola energy. Where everyone would hug trees and talk to the plants and be completely immersed in nature. I think my expectations were pretty spot on as you will probably discover by the end of this post. Chewonki already feels like home and I know I never want to leave. On our first normal weekend, a group of faculty and students went canoeing from Chewonki Neck waterfront. I went in a boat with Katie Curtis (my math teacher) and her adorable dog, Read More

Fall in Maine is a spectacular sight: forests painted in fiery hues, clear blue skies overhead, and the first hint of a chill in the air. Semester 65 was lucky enough to experience this all within a few days of arriving here on the Chewonki campus. Grouped by cabins and full of excitement, they set off for a 5-day adventure in the backcountry of Maine. Whether students were summiting Mount Bigelow, paddling the St. Croix River, or backpacking along the Appalachian Trail, they had an amazing Read More