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It was a clear, blue sky and sunny summer afternoon up in the forested backcountry of Maine. I was blond haired, thirteen years old, standing at a height of five foot four and filled with more enthusiasm than a hot air balloon filled with helium. Today, July 25, 2003 would be the first day of living with my yet to be known, but new camp family. As I unload from the van, I take my first two steps onto the soil, take in a large breath of fresh New England air and let it out with a sigh of relief. Instantly I realize that this place called Kawanhee is filled with brotherhood and tradition and right away I realize that I want to make my mark and be a part of it.

            Like a stranger at a party, I turned to the only person I knew for guidance. Taylor Van Landingham, my good friend from back home who told me about Kawanhee, so I decided that I would use him as a crutch for the time being to introduce me to some people. Back at his lodge, I meet a few of his lodge mates, but no one too important to make a very strong first impression. However, after seeing the strong bond that Taylor had to his lodge mates, I decided that I wanted that and realized that all I needed to do was build up some courage and introduce myself to my lodge mates.

            As I approached my lodge, I was greeted to the sound of Puerto Rican rap and three individuals tossing their pocketknives at a cut up cardboard box. The three individuals were each wearing baggy jeans, a red headband and their own personalized soccer jersey. I felt like I had been dropped into some kind of tryout system for a new and up coming Puerto Rican gang. Luckily, I dropped any biased idea that I had and was quick to introduce myself to them as A.J., the new guy. The three of them were named Carlos, Luis, and Gabby. Only Carlos would be my new lodge mate, however the other two would later become good friends of mine on the camp Kawanhee soccer team. After exchanging personal information to each other, Carlos walked me into the cabin to meet the rest of my lodge mates.

The cabin was built back in the 20’s, resembled the log cabin from Little House on the Prairie and could hold seven bunk beds along with three single beds for each counselor. Inside the cabin there was just this one kid, lanky, black haired with large circular glasses, and he was wearing short athletic shorts, a warn out Cleveland Browns shirt and had a space between his front two teeth big enough to squeeze a grape through. I’ll never forget this, after I introduced myself as A.J., he responded with a “Yo what’s up, I’m Dan,” and he pounded his chest twice with his fist, then kissed his finger-tips just like Sammy Sosa of the Cubs used to do after he hit his homeruns. Once he told me that he was from Olentangy, Ohio and was an avid Cleveland fan, I new instantly that he would be one of my better friends at camp.

Dan was defiantly one of the better people to get to know around camp. He new everyone and had been there since he was seven years old, not to mention he had two older brothers that had also attended camp. After getting to know Dan a lot better, we started hanging out a lot and he would be the one who introduced me to everyone I needed to know. Dan and my relationship, was more than just friends, we seemed almost like twins born to the same mother, and everything we did we did together.

 (I could probably explain more about Dan)

Another one of my good friends from camp was Johnny Sengleman. At the time, Johnny was kind of plump and had long shaggy brown hair like a singer to some 80’s rock group. Johnny and I got to know each other through water skiing. Before I ever attended camp, Johnny had been known as the best water skier at camp for his age group, but that would soon all change. Coincidently, Johnny was ridding in the boat the first time I ever water-skied at Kawanhee, so he got a front row seat to all the action. I showcased my skills by starting out on two ski’s, then dropped one mid run leading into a slalom ski, from there, I lifted one of my feet off the ski performing a spread eagle, a difficult trick that involves holding the rope with one foot, while the arms are spread out in the air like a bird. After my run, Johnny rushed out of the boat and pulled me up out of the water onto the ski dock. While on the dock, attempting to take off my water vest, Johnny got up in my face and said, “Where the hell did you learn to do that, I’ve been skiing since I was six and couldn’t even imagine attempting something like that.” I responded to him by letting him know that I used to go to another camp, where I invested most of my time water skiing.

 (build onto Johnny and introduce Bono)

Although Paul Bonasera had attended camp every year that I was there, it was not until summer of 2006 that we hung out and really got to know each other. He was a year older than me, but we both possessed the same rank of being a Junior Counselor and that summer we were counterparts to one another. Paul, or Bono as we all called him was a fairly quiet person, he stood at about five foot eight, had black hair and a major passion for music. I remember spending hours in the front row seat of the van exchanging all the knowledge we had once acquired about Notorious B.I.G. on our long and drooling drive to Bar harbor. Today Paul continues to research music and he even has an amazing musicblog called Paulbono.com. From one family into another, my “brother,” Bono, also attends Ohio University and he recruited me into his fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha.

Pi Kappa Alpha, or Pikes as most people refer to us around campus is my newly acquired band of brothers. Unlike Kawanhee, where the brotherhood comes together by choice, at the Pike house it is forced upon you through the pledging process and I am and will always be thankful for having the opportunity. I have never been closer to a group of people that were complete strangers to me six months ago and for that I am thankful.

(Get more descriptive about Pike brotherhood)

I don’t believe it is possible to write a paper about family without actually talking about my literal family. Anyone one person can tell you that they don't have a single personality. People take on a different role depending on whom they hang out with. As for myself, I am one of two siblings, with my brother Matt being nine years older than myself. Being that my parents had me in their late 30's and my mom had a fairly dramatic experience birthing Matt, I guess you could say that I was an "oops" child, so in a way I was raised almost like an only child with three parents. Not saying that my brother was an authority figure, but he was someone that had quiet a bit of life experience and was much easier to turn to for answers than my parents.

 

As for the roles, I would have to say my parents see me as their adventurist child. Starting at an early age, I would meet early in the morning and ride bikes with my friends all over town until about dinnertime. This would upset my parents cause they had no means of contacting me, incidents like this would help my parents come up with the term for me as always "running." I wasn't a bad kid growing up, so my only groundings would come from my so-called "running" adventures. Before the ability of being able to understand my actions, my parents have told me that when I first began to crawl, I would zip around the house investigating every nook and cranny as if I was on some type of secret mission.