Illustration by David Shanfield
October is a magical month. The trees change color and Halloween anticipation begins to bubble and buzz. Students are still refreshed from summer and can embrace the full-time liberal-arts student lifestyle. It’s fitting, therefore, that Camelympics takes place on the first of such an enchanting month, on the cusp of autumn.
As a wide-eyed froshie myself, the concept of Camelympics as a kick start to a year of (hopefully successful) social and intellectual endeavors, is especially lovely. On Saturday I weaved through my events – Scrabble, Puzzling, Bananagrams – and it dawned on me that too few people allow themselves to give in to the potential that Camelympics offers. I had a really good time and saw a lot of other people having a really good time too, despite the generally sober state of the campus… so why is it still uncool to give into Camelympics pride? From the description on the Conn College website, I expected the entire campus to be out and about, roaming through events to cheer people on when they themselves weren’t participating. But the turnout for most events seemed sparse, and the energy on campus was no different from any other Saturday.
To convince you of the possibilities of Camelympics, picture this: I’m aggressively attacking an admittedly difficult jigsaw puzzle with a freshman girl from the third floor, with whom I hadn’t particularly bonded with prior to the event. In the midst of puzzling heat (it proved to be as athletic an activity as Quidditch), the adjacent room began booming with cheers. Clearly, the arm wrestling competition had commenced next door with a small, but plenty enthusiastic, crowd. The roar of the arm-wrestling roadies breaks my partner’s and my focus, and after making eye contact for a split second, we burst into laughter. How ridiculous it is to furiously tackle a dollar store puzzle with about a million-and-two pieces missing. How ridiculous to briefly forget that we’re getting so involved in Camelympics, of all things. But what’s most funny is that we really do care, that after we joke around for a minute about the current hilarity, we’re still going to turn back to the puzzle with new-found fire in our eyes, the roar from the adjoining room unintentionally cheering us on. Getting enthusiastic about Camelympics is fun and worthwhile, and admitting this can make two strangers laugh together like they’ve known each other since Kindergarten.
My teammate and I could not have failed harder at this puzzle competition, but we actually gained tons of insight on our peers and what kids at Conn are (and are not) capable of.
In juxtaposition with the recent freshman elections, Camelympics much more accurately represented the true student heroes of Conn College, not just those kids who make witty posters to get votes. While a political election is telling of a person’s rhetoric, and therefore a person’s ability to convince us of something that may or may not be true, Camelympics reveals our peers’ characters.
It turns out that the girl from upstairs who I’d never really gotten to know before is awesome. We worked so well as a team, communicating consistently and working individually when we needed to pick up the pace, not to mention she made me laugh my ass off. After one hour of competitive puzzling, I had so much faith in this girl, my peers and the school as a whole.
Camelympics really displayed those kids who have good character: the kids who come out to cheer on their friends in arm wrestling or run around a field dressed as a Golden Snitch just for the fun of it. I met a champion Banagrams player who humbly dismissed his skills, blaming them on the boredom of the Irene blackout, and a cocky Scrabble connoisseur who made sure the whole room knew that his team gained fifty points by adding a single ‘Q’ to the board.
Just because Camelympics happens during the day and includes events like Wii bowling and Uno doesn’t mean we should write it off as lame or uncool. It may be two in the afternoon, and shot-gunning some Buds may be a less-than-appealing and less-than-applicable pre-game for Camelympics, but just because you won’t be hammered-smashed-plastered doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from Camelympics. I certainly gained a lot of admiration for people I had never even paid attention to before. •
