Jumping back in

I’ve spent the summer across the continent: teaching, writing, revising, vacationing. I took my kids to BC and we swam in the Pacific ocean, went fishing, overturned the canoe, and listened to the seals. I was hardly in Kingston. When September hit, though, I flew back, put my clothes back in their drawers, and sat down at my desk. It wasn’t easy.

I love RMC in all weathers, but there is something especially wonderful about it at the end of summer, right at the threshold of a new schoolyear. You can feel it leaning forward.

Last Friday, the last weekday before classes began, I took myself to the RMC pier with the intention of throwing myself into the water, reinserting myself into the college landscape. (My colleague Irwin would point to this expression as an example of syllepsis.) I expected to be alone, but found 7 students already there: 6 jumping into the water and a seventh taking pictures. They were making words with their bodies.

I haven’t seen RMC cadets in person for over a year and know none of the new ones by sight. I felt separate, isolated from these strangers on campus. Suddenly, though, there we were in our bathing suits, standing nearly side by side in the sunshine.

To my surprise, one turned and spoke to me: “Dr B?”

Maybe I couldn’t recognize their faces, but when the person beside me told me his name, I remembered him immediately as a thoughtful, articulate student from my first-year class. It was a pure delight to see him face to face. He invited me to make a letter in the word they were forming, and put me on the end.

In that moment of jumping in tandem, of being part of a team, of feeling the friendship emanating from this group of happy young people, the word they chose could not have been more perfect. Our letters might not be strictly formed, but you can read it nonetheless: VICTORY.