Kenyon College - CASE

Things
We
Love to
Hate
about Kenyon
These are a few of our favorite things…to grouse about
Don’t be put off by the headline. Kenyon
students love the place, that’s a given.
We all do. But after we’ve been here
long enough to become true inhabitants—say,
three weeks—we learn to
express our love the Kenyon way. That is, we gripe.
Complaining is one of life’s pleasures, and, like so
many other things, it seems to be sweeter and more
intense on top of this far-away Ohio hill.
Perhaps it’s the syndrome of Kenyonesque smallness
magnifying everything, from local legends to local
landmarks . . . to local aggravations. One could argue
that in Kenyonesque isolation, legendary landmarks
are bound to aggravate us at times.
Perhaps it’s just February: not just the real February
of black-morning sleet storms turning Middle Path
into a death march, but the metaphorical February of
reality-bruising mythology—as when Ascension Hall,
one of Kenyon’s dream castles, loses some of its allure
during a semester of 8:00 a.m. climbs up the endless
staircases to face another Latin quiz.
We who fell in love with lovely Gambier Hill feel
betrayed when she reveals her blemishes. And she
inevitably does, especially when we’re stressed out. No
wonder we end up imagining a Kenyon Golden Age
beside which our own Kenyon falls short. And so, just
as inevitably, our Kenyon chauvinism takes on a tinge
of the curmudgeon.
Here are a few of the things that prove we are real
Kenyonites, because we love to grumble about them.