*Late Post* Enter Session 2

Enter session 2. Super excited to have a new set of keeners here for another 3 weeks although I do really miss the friends I made last session. One thing I wanted to talk about in keeners is relationships. Don’t worry, not the ones you think. I want to talk about relationships in terms of friendships made here in the program. I find that all of these blogs are all about what we did this week or how the day went but I think It would be nice for all you readers out there to get into the psychological aspect of keeners not just the physical aspect.

To begin, I have been in keeners since the summer of 2010 when I first started kayaking. Since that point I have improved immensely in not only my kayaking but in my overall personality and social well being. I came to the program as a chubby 13 year-old kid who didn’t do much in terms of physical activity. Looking back I can see how much I have changed and it makes me realize that it is not only the program that has changed me, it is the people in the program. The people that I met 3 years ago in my first weeks of keeners have become some of my greatest friends, as well as most of my best friends in the following years. What people look past most of the time are the bonds you create living with these people for 1, 2, 3, 6 or even 9 weeks.

I have already been here 3 weeks and I feel like I have made a couple of friends that I would like to hopefully hang out with for the rest of my life. It is so awesome how this community of tightly knit people changes you. I truly believe that if it weren’t for the fact that the people here weren’t so awesome I don’t think I would be a kayaker, not the one I am now at least.

My best advice would be to come to keeners with the expectations that you are going to meet some people that will change you permanently. I can say this for not only people in past years but even one or two people I have met this year as well already. I think that this is such an awesome part of the sport and the keener program because I haven’t met people like this anywhere else in my lifetime. I am pretty proud of who I have become as a result of meeting these amazing people and I am looking forward to where else they take me!  

With that being said I hope you feel like this program will be sick for you if you’re a kid wanting to improve yourself both on and off the water. To anyone else I hope this post says something else about the program you didn’t already know. Thanks for reading!! 

-Edward