Escape Gambier for some time to see the world with no extra cost!” You know what? I understand the appeal. It is almost an assumption that Kenyon juniors will decide to study abroad. I can’t tell you that you shouldn’t go abroad, but I can share with you the rarely-mentioned merits I experienced staying at Kenyon for my whole junior year. 

There is this Jewish concept of “Doikayt,” or “hereness” that stresses the importance of making a community your community. I may just be passing through Gambier, but I still believe that the things I’m doing here matter. It is these friends, these classes and professors, this work. Maybe I just hate change, but I’ve started something I want to continue. 

I find it kind of sad that over half of each class decides to leave our tight-knit community that they are supposedly in “on purpose.” I’ve noticed that some Kenyon students come here with a touristy attitude, that this is just an exciting stop on their paths but nothing worth any special dedication. Now, well into my third year at Kenyon, I am really beginning to grapple with exactly how long four years is. Of course, Kenyon’s design is intended to take you in, chew you up and spit you out as far as you can dream. But even then, these four years, this chewing up that flies by so fast, are intrinsically valuable.

There is something about junior year. I have matured drastically more this year than ever before. Both those who went abroad and those that stayed have expressed feeling the same. At the end of the day, where you are is probably less significant than how you are when there. Going abroad forces you to see the world in a dramatically different light, but I experienced something similar this past semester in Gambier. Trust me, you have not exhausted everything that being a Kenyon student has to offer. 

I certainly had my moments where Kenyon’s claustrophobic routines made me yearn to become a world traveler, but last semester I ended up experiencing a whole new Kenyon. I became great friends with people I thought I knew, and realized I didn’t. I got really into journalism and making Challah on Fridays. I dipped my toe into Buddhism. I took the comfort of being an upperclassman in a familiar place and really stretched as far as I could. For these reasons and so many more, I would endorse eight semesters at Kenyon. 

Of course, if you’ve always wanted to see the pyramids, Gambier can’t do that for you. But Kenyon is a really special place. And even when that specialness may be less than positive (boy would I love to feel invisible), this is the commitment I made when I decided to come here. You are who I chose to throw my lot in with. When you go abroad, you get to be independent and I’m sure you learn a lot about yourself. But when I stayed here, I learned so much about this community — something bigger and my place in it.

Dalia Fishman ’27 is a philosophy and religious studies major from McLean, VA. She can be reached at fishman2@kenyon.edu.