Boot-N-Paddle
A Fond Farewell from a Graduating Senior
The day is Jan. 15, 2024. I wake up in Camden, Maine, sometime mid-morning, not having packed my car in the slightest. By the time I have, it’s already 3 p.m., and the nine-hour drive to Canton, NY, is looking more miserable by the second. Nevertheless, I say goodbye to my dog, I hop in my trusty Honda Pilot, and I hit the road. The drive is largely uneventful, but I can’t help feeling my anxiety rise with every mile I progress. The prospect of moving into a new house, filled mostly with people I don’t know, is certainly daunting.
It’s nearly 12 a.m. when I finally arrive at 58 Park St., AKA, the Outing Club. Five-foot icicles hang from each corner of the roof, two feet of snow stand on the ski ramp in the front yard, and raucous laughter can already be heard from upstairs. It being so late, I don’t bother to unpack anything more than my sleeping bag, computer and toothbrush. With these items in hand, I ascend the icy steps to the side porch and enter.
Once inside, I make a b-line for my new room. If you’ve ever been to a party at the OC and wondered what poor soul lives in the room accessible only through the common room, just feet away from our absurdly loud and sometimes combustible speaker system––in the spring of 2024, it was me and my lovely roommate, Emmit Dayhoof (’26). All that I find inside the room is a bare mattress lying on the dirty wooden floor and a few leftover items from the previous occupant, Graham Bowen ‘24. I close the door, lay out my sleeping bag, eat three McChickens, and lull myself to sleep with an episode of “River Monsters.” Inevitably, though, I find myself staring at the ceiling late into the night, wondering what the hell I’m doing in this gross, foreign house.
That first sleep in the Outing Club stands as one of the more lonesome nights I can remember, but it didn’t take long for the house to start feeling like home. In the years that followed, the Outing Club has come to mean more than I can describe. If forced to boil such a place into a few words, they would be kinship, lunacy, opportunity, and grit. As I close out my 3.5 years at SLU, especially the last two spent in the OC, I want to give thanks to every housemate, trip participant, partygoer and anyone else who has made this club so special. I will undoubtedly remember–or sometimes not–the countless adventures, late nights, pranks, bits and forever friends as some of the most valuable and formative pieces of my life.
Long live the lunatic fringe at 58 Park St.
Sincerely,
Emerson Brott ’26
& Your Phriendly
Neighborhood Outing Club