Steve Brauntuch: Following traditions and creating your own

I'm a camp guy. Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, to be precise. I've done 12 years (six as a camper, six with an asterisk as a counselor) and I'm still itching for more. For me, it wouldn't be a complete summer without a trip to the Berkshires to see old friends and play on the clay tennis courts.

Perhaps more importantly, though, I'm a camp purist. There are many traditions at camp, and there are reasons we have followed them since I was a camper. And I'll be damned if I'm going to let those traditions go by the wayside. So each summer, I make a point of ensuring that these traditions get followed just as they did when I was 10 years old.

But that's not enough for me. I feel a responsibility to teach the camp rookies, counselors and campers alike, about these traditions. My time at camp is running out, and someone must carry on these traditions after I'm gone.

During Olympics -- super-sized color war with eight teams -- I insist that we spend time going through every Olympic team and its coach dating back to 1993. (I should point out here that many campers at Mah-Kee-Nac were born after 1993. They seem a bit confused at first, but they catch on fast.) My friend and I even created a fake Hall of Fame, where we induct counselors and administrators from years past in an effort to introduce them to new generations of campers.

Is it sad that I do these things? Absolutely. I am a camp dork, and I'm extremely proud of it. But I don't think you can really appreciate camp without taking part in these traditions, no matter how ridiculous they might seem at first.

The reason I bring this up is that my window of opportunity at Penn is closing soon also. With only one year left to go in my tenure, I will be taking part in many traditions for the final time as a student. Some of these traditions are set in stone from years of practice, and some are fairly modern. And as you might have guessed, I follow them religiously each year.

But we've got a whole section in this newspaper that can tell you about the long-standing traditions, like throwing toast or the Econ scream. There are some other, less-notable traditions that must be passed down and kept alive for future classes of Penn students. These are just as important as the others, because with a little bit of help, they can become the lasting legacy of a new generation of Penn alumni.

Here now are some of the things you'll run into along the way in your first year at Penn. They may not all make sense now, but they will soon.

•Basketball games. Right from the opening tip, we chant. "Let's Go Quakers" when we have the ball, and "De-fense" when we don't. Then there are the others, which are scattered throughout the game: "Air Ball" -- stated three times, followed by "You Suck"; "The Hey Song" -- we insist that the band play it at the end of every victory and, of course, insert the "You Suck" during the chorus; and, perhaps the most important one, SOL-O-MI-TO -- during a blowout, we always chant the name of garbage time hero Dan Solomito. If you're confused about any of this, ask your neighbor at the game. He'll fill you in. And please get there on time.

•Hill Field. Campus beautification is a wonderful thing, but Hill Field (or the mounds of dirt that have replaced it) has traditionally been off-limits for construction. It's home to pickup football games, soccer kicks and ultimate frisbee practices, not to mention the Spring Fling concert and Hey Day festivities. I'm sure the path and the strange bowl splitting the field into quarters will look lovely, but don't let the administration kick you off of the only green space left on Penn's campus. These activities must go on in that space, no matter how many people suggest that you play down by the train tracks. If that means the walkway serves as the end zone, so be it. Make the lamppost a first down marker or something.

•Goal posts. We tried taking them down twice. We failed twice. It ain't happening. We've gotta find something else for when we win the Ivy League football title this year. If you have any good ideas, pass them along and we'll give it a try. This can be your new tradition, your lasting legacy as a class. Make it a good one, because throwing benches into the Schuylkill River last year didn't go over too well.

It's one thing to bond with your freshman hallway over dinner or while doing the human knot. But these are ways that your entire class (and other classes, too) can create a connection that goes beyond the classroom and even beyond your stay here at Penn.

I always tell the campers that the traditions will make a lot more sense to them when they become counselors. And the same logic applies here. Take part in traditions now, because if you don't, you'll regret it four years down the road.

Steve Brauntuch is a senior Communications major from Tenafly, N.J. and editorial page editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.