Bad Things Happen to Jerks

I know, I know, you all missed me terribly. But I'm back now! As Rebecca put it, I've been too busy doing something to write—I've been at CTY, affectionately called nerd camp, taking chemistry for the last three weeks. Oh the stories I have. I was pondering where to start, but I guess the beginning will suffice—

It was first day at nerd camp and our parents had all left. We sat in the auditorium—Anita Tuvin Schlechter, say it five times fast, it's fun—our hall had gone early as per my recommendation to get the chairs that spin. The site director gets up to the stage and starts to make his annual speech.

"CTY," he says, "is like a cake. A cake has different parts. CTY has three—first, safety. Safety is on the bottom, the most important thing. After you are safe we can then learn. Then comes the last part, fun. The icing of fun. But we can't have fun unless we have safety and learning first. At CTY we don't have a lot of rules. Instead, we have an honor code. This is because you are all gifted, and whenever we say something like, no staying up past 10:30, invariably someone thinks, 'Oh, I'm so tricky, I'll go to sleep at ten, wake up at ten thirty, and spend the night partying.' No. The honor code a CTY goes like this: don't be jerk. Since some people, sadly enough, do not know what this means, the next thirty minutes will go to defining that. But in general, don't be a jerk! One of the things that makes you a jerk is harassment. Don't harass other people. There are many different flavors of harassment—it's like ice cream, ice cream of doom, though."

It went on much longer, but that's all I remember. :) More stories later!

Sachi