So because I'm feeling nostalgic (and I miss everyone sooo much!) I'm going to create my own "Only at Interlochen" list. Trust me...you will ONLY understand this if you've been to Interlochen. (Prospectives, take note--THIS is what you will be dealing with come fall if you decide to attend!)
ONLY AT INTERLOCHEN:
A gaggle of teenage boys dressed in insane costumes and the weirdest wigs known to mankind walk down the street carrying a camera. They set up the camera and begin to film themselves chasing each other. And even though people witness this, both from their dorm windows and as they walk by on the street, no one questions it or even really notices what's going on...it's just an ordinary weekend.
Every single person in a major wears felt mustaches during an end-of-year cookout. And again...no one questions this.
An evening at the cafe can turn into a mini-dance party, regardless of whether or not there is anything else going on.
A girl can wear a skirt made out of an old sweatshirt to a school dance, and instead of being weirded out, her friends go, "OMG where did you get that? AAAH you made it? How??? I WANT ONE!"
The phrase "Macaroni stop!" is a perfectly acceptable substitute for "I don't know what to do!"
Girls can give guys piggyback rides, and it's considered perfectly normal.
Nobody in the room--except the chaperones--was born in the 1980s...but they go crazy and yell, "THIS IS MY JAM!" when "Jessie's Girl" starts playing during prom.
It's considered admirable for your entire hall to dress up in slutted-out versions of the school uniform, jack up the words to "California Gurls," and do a kick-line at the end-of-year talent show...which is really called CoffeeHouse.
No one--repeat, no one--gives a crap if you're gay, bi, trans, lesbian, asexual, or "free love." In fact, if you don't fall into one of those categories, you may actually be considered a bit strange.
You don't run away screaming when your screenwriting teacher starts doing the electric slide in front of your entire major. Instead, you join in.
Seeing your hall counselor salsa-dancing with one of your friends in front of the whole school does nothing except make you jealous--you just sit there thinking, "Wow, wish I could do that!"
During an afternoon block, you are doing absolutely nothing because you don't have class, but have to stay in the building and "work" anyway. To liven things up, three of your friends stage a drama in which two of them are married, but the husband is cheating with his roommate, whom his wife insists he kill with a stick. The pictures go up on Facebook, and no one comments on them not because they didn't see them, but because there's nothing to comment on--this is, after all, pretty much an everyday occurrence.
A gay guy and straight guy stage a dramatic mock-fight in order for one of them to ask a lesbian to prom. And she says yes.
It's totally normal for the phrase "baby-killing" to be used in casual conversation.
A group of kids make a pact that at midnight on Halloween, they will begin writing their NaNoWriMo novels, stay up all night, and meet at noon the next day to share their progress. They then walk into town to buy energy drinks, caffeinated drinks, chocolate, and other high-sugar products to assist them in the monthlong event...after all, what's an all-nighter without caffeine?
When you and your friends go to Mackinac Island, someone suggests you go to a butterfly pavilion, and the rest of you immediately say, "Yes!" without a single hint of sarcasm. Later that same day in Mackinac Island, you have nothing to do, so you follow three of your guy friends into a toy store and shoot each other with wooden guns and rubber-band ammo.
You can wear anything you like--poodle skirts, tutus, saddle shoes, bomber jackets, Tokio Hotel makeup, hipster glasses, skirts made out of your mom's old pants, jewelry out of a vending machine, handmade hats and scarves--and not only do people not tease you for it, they actually ask you where you got your stuff.
Nothing to do? Just wander around taking photos of the campus. It's guaranteed that there will be at least five other people doing the exact same thing. Photography party, anyone?
"Homeschooled" does not automatically equal "socially awkward" or "weird look from whoever you're talking to." Instead, it's, "Oh my God, you too?!?" or, "Wow, that's awesome!" In addition, homeschoolers do not have to fend off stupid questions such as, "So do you have any friends?" or "You do get lunch breaks, right?"
If one roommate is dormed on the other's birthday, the birthday girl will bring the dormed roommate food from Wendy's and have a mini-party with their suitemates so that the dormed roommate can join in the fun.
Snow-jumping, sledding, snowfights, and snow sculpture-building is not just encouraged, it's required.
People will do anything and everything to keep from getting bored--host picture-drawing parties in the Writing House, make short films that have literally no plot, make an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink dessert with the girls in their dorm, try to climb that giant tree on Main Camp, make a huge snow fort in the middle of campus, have a "starving artist party" complete with fake cigarettes and black coffee, sit under the table at dinner, throw chairs into the lake, watch gay guys make out with straight girls, read Twilight solely for the purpose of mocking it, start random blogs and abandon them two months later, play yard games in the Concourse, or risk suspension by spending the entire night in their guy friend's dorm room just so they can play Monopoly after sound-out.
Someone can start a word trend with surprising ease--just say the phrase "ass hat" or "f**k me gently with a chainsaw" once or twice, and next thing you know EVERYONE is saying it.
S'mores are not only your favorite food, but a key part of your diet. In fact, they've replaced one of the main food groups for you--after all, who needs protein when there's S'MORES around?
You'd think that with so many gay guys present it'd be easy to tell when two boys are dating...but no, it's impossible, thanks to the presence of so many bromances that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg should really think about coming here to get material for their next screenplay.
Coming across a friend riding a tricycle while wearing footie pajamas and a top hat is not unusual in the least. Nor is seeing that same friend carry a boom box into the dorm commons after sign-in and blasting Justin Bieber--and dancing along.
Knock on the door? Who does that? It's much more fun to blare music outside your friends' doors until they answer!
Instead of the majority of the population being Christian trying to convert atheists, it's the other way around.
There is such a thing as a "Failbook Party," which occurs when three or four friends gather in front of one person's computer just to read Failbook, Meme Base, Monday Through Friday, and There I Fixed it.
Ever seen a trail of hair and rocks leading to a poster in the middle of Main Camp? Ever seen a preview for a strangely color-corrected short film with a foreign title? Ever seen a handful of weirdly-dressed boys wearing Mardi Gras beads and clown wigs taking pictures or videos in random places? Don't worry...it's just the MPAs.
One of two things happens concerning idols: 1) Everyone at Interlochen knows who you're talking about because it's an epic guest speaker who came to a community meeting, film festival, or master class, and your friends all understand when you reference that person's work...meanwhile, nobody outside Interlochen knows who the hell you're talking about. 2) Nobody knows who you're talking about at first...but after spending time with you, they know, and they tell their other friends, who tell their other friends, who tell pretty much the entire school, and the next thing you know, you've started a craze.
The phrase "slut" applies equally to both genders.
Everyone says that theater majors are the loudest and creative writers are the quietest...but if you're friends with any creative writers, you know that's not true.
Instead of buying cigarettes or going clubbing on their eighteenth birthdays, everyone has dance parties on Main Camp or dinner parties in the MB or TJ basements.
In terms of being sheltered at home, everyone falls into one of two categories: Either Interlochen is waaaay too strict for them, or they have twice as much freedom at Interlochen as they do at home.
Everyone wants to get into DeRoy because of the heated floors. Meanwhile, DeRoy kids complain that their rooms are too hot.
Open rooms are magical: You and your friends can gather in someone's room and do absolutely nothing, and still have the time of your life.
Friendships move at the speed of light. It's completely normal for you to meet someone, decide they are your long-lost twin, get married to them on Facebook, and then suddenly hate them, all within a one-week timeframe...
...On the other end of that, it's also completely normal to not meet someone until the year is almost over, and then wonder how on earth you got along without them.
STOLEN DIALOGUE: BEN BUSCH EDITION
(The following quotes came from a talk with Benjamin Busch, who came to my Writing About War class on May 3, 2011.)
(on serving in the Middle East)
"After awhile you realize that everybody is named Mohammed...so you've gotta keep your Mohammeds straight."
"To live your life 124 characters at a time is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs."
"We're idiots--we're Americans!"
"You can't run around in a combat zone yelling at people. It'd be interesting, and great for YouTube, but it'd get you dead."
(on adolescence)
"You're transforming into the period of love...welcome! It's hell on earth!"
"You can't be satisfied by vengeance. The thing done to you can never be outdone by the thing you can do."
"People in the military sometimes are stupid."
(on writing nonfiction)
"We're all trying to articulate something that's pure to us."
"We've been pissed off by love for a long time, so we've got a lot of great words to describe what happens when it fails."
"My father wrote from a woman's perspective all the time, and if you've ever seen a picture of my father...not an attractive woman."
"Love sucks magically in just about ever setting you put it in."
"Never name an American film 'sympathetic details.'"
"Apocalypse Now is an anti-war film--it makes people love war!"
(to a girl who kept raising her hand)
"You'd be great on a game show, but I already hit you once."
"I live in central Michigan; I pretty much shot myself in the foot that way."
"So I was like, 'Ok, I'll make my own films...oh, crap, now I have to write them...'"
"It's like independent film: You do terrible things to yourself and complain about it."
"Charge across the desert with a sword, that was my plan. It's a terrible plan, but it'd make a great story."
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