One of the few on going jokes here at keeners between me and a few others has been "Welcome to the Rabbit Hole".
Now before I begin explaining this, this is my first year at keeners. I have always seen and admired kayakers from afar for a long time. I have been coming to Wilderness Tours since I was approximately ten years old but only for rafting and every trip I would see these people in small boats chatting with any rafter or other boater that came across like they were best friends. Looking back I'm not sure if I was more interested in the lifestyle or the kayaking, but overall it lead me to want to kayak for years. Finally, last year, after years of begging, I was enrolled in the Teen Resident Camp here at WT and fell in love with kayaking.
This is essentially where the "Rabbit Hole" joke begins. As I begun kayaking I quickly learned that almost everyone in this sport is crazy in their own beautiful way. Most of the people in Teen Camp were strange insane weirdos who knew how to have a good time and make a good time out of a situation that wasn't too happy. Those who knew how to have a good time though made the best of camp and made it that much more enjoyable and crazy. Now take all of those who knew how to have a good time put them all in one camp. Except instead of about six crazy teens you now have twenty-one who all get along and are insane in their own special way and you have the session 2 of 2015 keeners.
This is where the "Rabbit Hole" joke truly began. Already on the first day I realized what a crazy bunch we truly were and made the joke that "we're going down the rabbit hole" as a reference towards the Alice in Wonderland book. One keener, named Hunter Gibson turns to me ad says "No welcome to the rabbit hole". I have realized over the past week that this statement is extremely true. Not only do you have "to be off your rocker to want to white water kayak", as once said by fellow keener Charlie Barbera, but the wonderful adventures and memories Alice makes while in Wonderland also apply to this program. It may only be week one but I have already found friends who accept me for my odd traits and have their own and also friends who will last more than just this session.
Overall, although it may seem slightly inappropriate to use the "Welcome to the Rabbit Hole" reference when talking about keeners at first, when thought is put into the joke it is actually a wonderful testament to the adventures and insane (meant in both ways) people working and living here with us this session at keeeners.
~ Holly Wilson
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
ReplyDelete"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”