Brownies, Hot Chocolate, and Community

Last year I lived in the same residence hall as Father Carnes, and, like all Chaplains-in-Residence, he would host an open house once a week for all the residents in Kennedy Hall. I attended his open houses pretty regularly, but one week in February stood out in particular. During this particular week, I actually got to know some people whom I don’t think I would have otherwise spoken with, even though some of them lived on my floor. It was the middle of the Winter Olympics so Father Carnes had the games on up on his flat screen TV, and he made some brownies and hot chocolate for us to have as well. It was a full house, and as we all watched the games, we talked about our favorite events, judged the performance of the Olympians and introduced ourselves a bit to one another. I spoke with people I had often seen but never talked to and met members of varsity teams one rarely thinks about, like golf, and got to know all sorts of people I didn’t even know lived in my building. It was genuinely a good time, and despite the event running from 9:30 pm to 10:30 pm, most people didn’t leave until after 11:00 pm. During this week, Kennedy Hall felt like a real community, and I got to know some of its members for the first time.

Philip Coffin, COL ’16