intermediate program summer site : conversations : second session



	nick from massachusetts (8/6) Nick is a residential student from Massachusetts preparing to enter ninth grade. This is his first year at Explo and he has really been enjoying the independence -- even if it does mean doing his own laundry! This baseball pitcher is super excited for end-of-session activities like Cruise Night, but is sad that he'll soon have to leave all of his Explo friends behind. So, what classes are you taking? I’m taking “I Object” and “Explo Unplugged”. Did you play the guitar before Explo? Yes, but I wasn’t as good as I am now. That's good to hear. What have you been doing in that class? Well, today we were working with each other trying to come up with chords and our own lyrics. How is that going? Writing the lyrics is hard, very hard. What made you want to take that class? I have kind of an interest in guitars and strumming -- I like the sounds it makes -- and knowing where to put my hands and when. I just like playing a lot. And your other class is “I Object”. How do you like that? I love it. The first few days we kinda reviewed the courtroom -- how it’s set up, the plaintiff, the defendant, where everything is. And now were working on a real murder case. It's about a man that supposedly killed a man by a pond. I’m the defense, so it's been really hard. The actual trial is on Thursday. I’m really excited. Do you see yourself wanting to do something with law in the future? Yeah, I want to be a policeman, lawyer, judge -- something to do with law. Have you been encouraged to try new things at Explo? Yes, well, obviously curb-ball, which I play a ton of. Do you think Explo is preparing you for high school? In a way, yeah. It really teaches you about responsibility, looking out for yourself, independence, and also how to plan your time. What mini-courses are you taking? Volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee. Ultimate Frisbee is my favorite ‘cuz I know how to throw the Frisbee really far. I’m definitely improving, though, because I’ve been told how to keep my wrist straight for throw hands, stuff like that. I’m definitely improving. How do you like your teachers? They’re definitely a lot more easy-going than at school. Laid back. If you’re two minutes late for class, they understand; they won’t make you stay late. They’re not as strict and much more fun. And classes are just more fun. There are more activities that let you engage with other students but still know the material. I’m getting a lot out of my classes. What has been your favorite main event? I really, really liked the magician. In the beginning of his act he told us to pick a card out of a pile and later on the card appeared on an umbrella, like the whole umbrella, the entire design was that. I couldn’t figure it out. What’s your favorite part of the day at Explo? Probably chill time or winding down time just because it's when you get to really socialize and say, “How was your day?” to everyone and find out what everyone has done here that day. How have you found meeting people here? Meeting people? It’s very easy to make friends here, I have to say. Did that surprise you? Yeah, it did a little bit. Kids around this age generally aren’t as nice as they are here -- stereotypically anyway. I came here with two friends but I really wanted to branch out and make a lot of new friends too, and that’s definitely happened. In high school there’s a lot of cliques, a lot of groups, and people get excluded. Here, everyone seemed to be included. People are so nice. What are you hoping to get out of Explo? Independence, responsibility. Do you think you’ve gained that? Yeah, with the laundry definitely. It’s hard. Yeah? Tell me a bit about that. Well every living group gets a day a week to do laundry. Mine is Wednesday, which is just a busy day anyways: mini-courses, and this week is Cruise Night. It’s really taught me to manage my time. Actually, so has getting ready for bed, brushing my teeth. We have an hour, which seems like a lot of time, but it's really not. So that’s about time-management too. What’s your favorite thing about your living group? My favorite thing is the RA's and the students too. There are so many exotic kids, I love it. There are people from all over the globe. We have a student from Greece, Germany . . . my roommate is from Hong Kong . . . so there's a lot of different people. That’s awesome! What do you think you’ll miss most about Explo? I’ll definitely miss . . . hmm, this is kinda hard. There’s a lot of things I’ll miss. I'll definitely miss a lot of the students and staff, a lot of the friends I’ve made. How would you describe Explo to someone coming to here? Very independent, free, and also carefree. It's sort of hard to explain . . . just easy-going and laid-back. If Explo had a mascot what would it be? The orange Explo curb-ball, of course!. more conversations > first session \| second session