A Reunion Like No Other | Tate Butler
I remember this day like it was yesterday, partially because it basically was: about a week or so ago family weekend came around. The week leading up to seeing my parents felt like eternity. The clock seemed to stop ticking during mid day math classes, sweeping the AB entrance felt like sweeping an endless pit of sand, the trash never ending, cook crews felt like we were preparing a feast for giants, and lots of them, at that. Monday, Tuesday, Wed – you get the idea, I was straight counting down the days until I could see my parents.
Now, you may be thinking that this week seems like some sort of sick torture, but don’t worry I am being dramatic, with each day came spikeball, lots and lots of spikeball, paired with good laughs, interesting courses, SEL announcements, and of course my birthday. Back to the parents. When Thursday night finally rolled around I couldn’t sleep – some may say it’s because I left my melatonin in the drawer in which the meds live, but for the sake of this blog I am going to say it was because of the excitement I was feeling. Now It’s Friday Morning. Chores. Classes. Lunch (yummy). More Classes. Free Block. Clean A LOT (this was torture). We had our cabin near spotless by the end of the clean block (a state that it is surely not bound to return to). And then finally we are lined up in Who’s hall, phones and meds in hands, hyped because we get to go to Sam’s house and see our parents. After an interesting walk filled with severely out of tune singing, what looked like dancing (not really) and a couple chuckles on the way, there they were. I ran to my mom, hugged both my parents and for a moment it was like I never left. We talked for a brief minute, said hello to some of my friends’ parents, then we raced over to the Treeline to have what possibly may have been a top 5 meal. I’m not sure if it was the moment or those crispy little potato skins but boy was I happy. After that we stayed up all night filling each other in on what we have been missing out on, both in DC and here. It was a moment I will truly never forget and I am so grateful for them and everything they have done for me.
Bowling | Allison Perez
Another Saturday, another activity to look forward to. After a long day of STEM classes, we loaded onto the buses, a 45 minute drive ahead of us as we head to Salida. We were bowling this week, but first we stopped at a park for dinner. Who doesn’t love pizza and fresh air? It was a quick stop but necessary before releasing 34 teenagers into a cramped bowling alley. As we arrived we were again reminded of our assigned bowling groups and then let loose to have fun.
As we entered, a wave of nostalgia hit as the old school bowling alley came into view. Small but mighty, it was able to handle all the students.
Although some people opted out of bowling, there were still other activities you could do. The guys surrounded the pool table as others chose to go straight to the snack bar. I headed to my bowling lane and waited for the rest of my group to arrive. Holding the lightest possible ball, I patiently waited for my turn, knowing this wasn’t going to end well for me. Having a recently healed collarbone was awesome, except for the fact that I still didn’t have full mobility. Thea comes walking up, confident in her abilities and gets a strike on the first go. I was bewildered as I couldn’t believe Thea actually just did that. I observe some of the other groups and just rejoice in the good vibes. Near the end of our bowling time, a karaoke machine was brought out. Game time. Students swarm the screen as others rush to sign up for their turn. “Love on the Brain” by Rihanna comes on and everyone starts belting out the lyrics, a staple song in our semester. After that, Greyson and some of the ‘commonwealth’ guys went up, their song of choice, “How you gonna act like that” by Tyrese Gibson. Although it took them a second to get on track, the song choice was amazing. Everyone was swaying, some with their hands up, and singing along. There were a few iconic songs sung, but not as iconic as the faculty singing “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood. This was an amazing way to end off our Saturday activity. Everyone passionately singing, or screaming I should say, gathered around enjoying the good vibes. After that last song, we loaded onto the buses once again, everyone tired yet content with how the night ended.
Elation | Jayden Nzekio
I feel like all my life, I’ve been striving for something new to do and enjoy. Something new can mean picking up a completely random hobby like volcano surfing, but for me it also means just doing the same thing with new people. Going bowling with my friends back home feels so different from here. Kicking around a soccer ball with my friends back home is so much different than here at HMI. Man, that bowling trip was something else. Even though I didn’t do that much bowling, every laugh, every note hit at karaoke was something I’ll just cherish forever. The elation I felt just cannot be replicated with another group of people. That’s what is so special and valuable about this place, nothing I’ve done here has ever satiated me with a feeling I’ve felt before. Maybe these feelings can’t be put into words or specific definitions, but just know it’s a sort of elation, exhilaration that can only be felt with these new people in these unique experiences, and I’m just so grateful for it all.
Buena Vista | Isabelle Lorch
When I heard we were going to Buena Vista I was very excited; we were told we were going to a huge field with a very expansive playground, also with warm weather and huge surrounding mountains. Only two days prior we had arrived back from the second exped, so we were still extremely energetic, coming off an “arriving back to HMI high”. On the day of our “vacation” we enthusiastically ran to the buses, laughing and running around due to pure excitement to go to this unknown place called Buena Vista. The first dilemma was the length of the bus ride, which was over an hour and practically straight down in terms of elevation. Yet nevertheless the drive was beautiful, a completely different landscape than Leadville, with miles upon miles of Sagebrush and a desert that seemed to go on forever. After a long bus ride, we slowly rolled into a medium-sized field with a tiny playground about 500ft away. We got out of the bus and were immediately freezing, however attempting to stay positive we did not complain. At least not yet. We unloaded our frisbees, soccer balls, spike ball sets, basketballs, unicycles, and who knows what else. We slowly meandered to the field and began kicking a soccer ball. I remember we played a game called “world cup”, where we each had a country and tried to score. After about 4 minutes everyone decided we were done with the game, and we all dispersed. At this point we were very cold and extremely bored so out of nowhere Tate decided to load all of the students back onto the bus to go back into the town, and everyone was suddenly happy again. This town was very different from Leadville with lots of buildings and restaurants, and weirdly in a very cold desert. We first went to a coffee shop which was packed with people, however we were determined to get this coffee. We then moved to an ice cream shop, got ice cream, and then moved to another ice cream shop, and got more ice cream. We then remembered that Tate offered to buy each person a coffee, so we went to another coffee shop and somehow fit it into our stomachs. This coffee shop was, for a lack of better expression, strange. With weird couples everywhere and very short ceilings it gave off a very odd aura. I think this coffee shop captured Buena Vista for how it is, odd.
2nd AB Reflection | Noam Levy
Coming back from skiing for ten days straight during second exped I had two things on my mind: How bad my sunburns were, and how excited I was to see all my other best friends. Luckily my sunburns dissipated after the first week of classes. But by then, all my schoolwork had begun to pile up.
Besides my awesome classes and teachers, which were still awesome even though I had a harder time keeping up this academic block, I made some very happy memories. I hope during the third AB I can still have my epic bike rides and fun town times. Like that time I sat in Before and After with the whole saloon (the name of one of the boys’ cabins). They had just come from the candy store, and all bought giant tubes of sugar. Literally. So we took pictures and laughed while they came off their sugar high. In the beginning of HMI, I couldn’t have predicted how much time I would spend hanging out with those fools. We like to spend our PMX exploring the woods behind the bus barn sometimes. One time we got to bring Pat’s dog Harry too. I have a lot of fun with them. Honestly, I really just hope I can keep out of Sergio’s office next academic block.
Anyways, another staple of my HMI experience has been my advisory. I cannot get enough of my advisory, I’m obsessed with them. We all woke up early one morning and dressed up in tinfoil hats and glitter for advisory breakfast. Dev turned on a youtube tutorial to perfect his hat. Let’s just say he kept the extraterrestrials far far away. We had an alien-ish theme going. Then we screamed outside the his cabin to wake up Noah and start heading over to Lou’s house. Our group genuinely feels like a family. Me, Lily, Jasset, Dev, Noah, and Lou all gathered around the table cracking jokes and sharing stories. Then sitting all together on her couch again to watch some tv. I would do anything for the little family I was assigned within my big HMI family.
Advisory Breakfast | Chloe Doran
Waking up extra early on a school day is never my ideal start to the morning. Today, however, was different – I was excited. After getting ready in the bathroom, showering, singing and hair styling, my friend Allison and I went to the Barnes Building to meet with the rest of our advisory. It seemed to take literally forever, but after multiple trips of running back and forth looking for people and the obtention of a waffle maker – by the request of our advisor – our whole five person advisory was finally ready to start the short walk to Amos’ house, just a bit away from the main campus.
Although none of us were really sure which house was Amos’, we were quickly reassured that we were heading for the right home by his dog, Boots, bounding towards us, tail wagging and as excited as ever. Seeing the assortment of fresh fruits and chocolate chips and juices and sausages was like heaven on Earth after the repeated bacon and eggs that we eat each morning. The first several attempts at waffles were complete failures of getting pulled apart when we opened the machine and sticking to the top of the maker. On the second batch, Indy forgot to turn the waffle maker on – something we still haven’t let go of laughing at her about – and we spent so many minutes confused on why they didn’t seem to be getting any more cooked to the point where half of the food was gone by the time we decided to give up and make pancakes instead. The morning was filled with giggles over Star Wars masks lying around the house, jokes about Indy spilling the food into the sink, delicious pancakes with whipped cream, and the sunny and warm weather, which the staff has repeatedly told us is extremely abnormal for late March, was nice enough to spend time outside drawing stick figure self portraits with multi-colored chalk.
As the breakfast came to a close, we spent our last couple minutes walking back to the main buildings together, waffle maker in hand, happy to miss morning chores and spend more time laughing as an advisory.