If you’ve checked any emails or Instagram stories or even just kind of glanced at a wall in the Student Center recently, then you have likely seen the veritable gallery of posters urging you (and anyone else, anyone at all) to apply to a theme house for next semester.

Of course, these posters forget to say one thing: why should you?  

Each theme house is a different experience but all share the common aspect of, well, everyone having something in common, whether that’s a hobby or a desire for social justice or an ungodly impulse to get no sleep on the weekends because of working (looking at you, Java). 

  In each micro-community, you get the privilege of living in a house with a built-in group of people who want to hang out with you. However, this being the Boot ‘N’ Paddle, I will only—you can see where this is going.

 The Outing Club is unique among not only St. Lawrence institutions, but among outing clubs across the country. It’s the second oldest of its kind. 

It holds the rowdiest party on the East Coast every March and sends trips across the globe, from the Adirondacks to the Everglades to Hawaii to Iceland. 

Multiple times a semester, the OC holds or cosponsors events free for the campus and Canton communities ranging from Harvestfest and Tent Party in the Fall Semester to Earthfest in the spring. 

These things are all sick, and if you successfully apply to the Outing Club, you’ll be able to help make all these things happen. Resumes are cool, but that’s not really why anyone chooses to live here.

The reason most people choose to live in the OC is the camaraderie. I know that managing rowdy buses for Titus or waking up at 5 a.m. on a Saturday for Peak Weekend would have been much less fun if my friends weren’t doing it with me.  

“Living with people who you share an interest with is awesome because you get to collaborate on things much more easily. It makes it easier to do things that you would never do because your friends will go and do it and you can learn,” says Jesse Vining ’20, President of the OC. 

Thacher Carter ’20 has a different perspective: “You can throw a carton of eggs on the ground and none of them will get mad at you.” Of course, living with those same friends means that you’ll all clean it together the next day. 

All this talk of friendship might seem intimidating, but a lot of applicants apply to the house not knowing many people, or even anyone. In my own personal experience, I applied on a whim after I met some cool trip leaders on a winter mid-semester break trip.  

An application, an interview, and a few short weeks later, I was a part of a fellowship that has helped me define my life since.

 In the past three years, the Outing Club has helped me make friends, travel the world, and grow as a leader and communicator. 

I think that should sell most anyone on trying an experience;, I hope it sells you.