Author: Noah Janchar

Splash has been the most impactful event in my high school years.

This blog post is told in the form of a long story. It’s a tale of making decisions, meeting new people, and ultimately, self-development. I hope you can find something to connect with.

My years of attending Splash were 2019-2022. I think of it as duck, axolotl, octopus, and hermit crab. Of course, the beginning is Splash 2019. Though that was an important year that set up the next three, it’s more of a prologue to the rest of the story. I first learned about Splash from my mom, who had heard of Splash through a family friend who had a son that had attended Splash the previous year. I had never heard of Splash, but being a nerd as many of us are, I was interested in the program and agreed to sign up. After registering, I went through the classes in the areas that interested me the most, reading through dozens of topics, then waited for the lottery results before finalizing my schedule for my first weekend of Splash.

I remember going into duPont gymnasium on that Saturday morning. I remember seeing the crowd of students being moved through, receiving schedules and turning in waivers. I’m not sure how I would have made it through there if my mom wasn’t helping me along that first time. Being in that setting was thrilling in a way, but also frightening in a way as well, especially when my mom left, leaving me to brave the land of infinite corridors on my own for the whole day. 

I don’t remember the specifics of my schedule from Splash 2019 very well, but I remember how the experience felt. Though the ESP staff were there to help me if I needed anything, it still felt like I was on my own, taking on the adventure of Splash that year. I was navigating using only my own reason, following my own path. In a way, I felt like I was free. I was in an environment where learning something new was every minute, and where I was the master of my own destiny. I remember meeting my mom after my classes on that night, filled with new knowledge, and ready for the next day. That Sunday was much the same, attending new classes and having a day of freedom once again. I picked up my Splash t-shirt on that day, taking a memento of the event along with my memories. The last thing I remember doing at Splash 2019 was walking outside of lobby seven to meet my mom, and looking back at the steps, thinking about returning for the next year. 

It would be three years until I saw those steps again.

When Splash 2020 registration opened, I signed up again, remembering my experience from the previous year. It was probably the best way to pause the monotony of the weekends. In the weeks before Splash, I read the emails being sent by ESP. Within one of them, a short line talked about the existence of an official Splash discord server. I had used discord a lot for communication with my friends, so I decided to follow the link and join the server, interested to see where it would bring me.

Upon following the link, I was sent a message by an account called AxoBotl, the moderation robot for Splash, asking me to verify my email. After confirming that I was registered for Splash, I gained access to the social channels of the server. It had text and voice channels of every subject, ranging from mathematics to visual arts. I was interested by the subject in almost every chat, and read through many of them, contributing to the conversations in each. The first day of the server being open was the day before Splash, but I was already invested into the online Splash community. Scheduling for Splash worked well to provide time to be in the server. There were still ten minute-breaks between classes, despite students not having to wander the infinite corridor. During each of those ten minute breaks the next day, I spent all the time I had talking with fellow Splash students. As Splash continued, the users of the server came together, becoming only more and more social, and getting to know each other better and better. By the end of the second day, I had already gained multiple new friends. This new friendship and connection, however, made the end of Splash only more saddening than the last year. I was going to have to leave all of the new people I had met, good conversations in the voice channels, and that incredible experience of unity during Splash behind. 

Or so I thought.

Towards the end of Splash, I received a friend request from someone that I hadn’t interacted with directly on the server before. I was confused, so I sent a message to her, asking about the request. She replied and explained that she was sending friend requests to people in the server to add them to a new, unofficial server, to keep people together after the end of Splash. I was excited at this idea. The wonder didn’t have to end. Upon clicking the invite, I found myself in a new server similar to the official one. Though similar channels existed, and less people were in the new one, it still felt more chaotic and active than the original, especially on the first day of its existence. I tried to keep up with the conversations on that first day, but ultimately had to leave for the night to prepare for the return to school the next morning.

For the next few days, the server continued being filled to the brim with new messages. It was overwhelming at first, but I still tried to keep in conversation whenever I could. After a few weeks, the server began to reach a steady pace, and I found myself able to read through and speak in each conversation. The server members began to become familiar to me, almost like a new friend group formed from Splash. 

Scratch that “almost”, actually.

I think the reason that the people of the new un-official splash server meant so much to me was because of how strong the community became between all of us. We all nerded out over any subject we could talk about and shared our own experiences, but I think the most important aspect of the community that brought us together was how much we cared for each other. Sometimes someone would be feeling awful, or need help refocusing, or just need advice on some problem. And every single time, someone would be there to help, respond, or simply share sympathy. It was incredible how much we grew together, and became so much more connected from simply being open with each other. I think it was this openness to each other and acceptance of each other’s struggles and identities that made the group so tight-knit. It was a support group. It was a safe space. It was a council of wise people with advice, tried and true. Besides creating a caring community, I think that one of the best effects that this group created for every member was learning. One of the hardest things to do during those times in the pandemic was learning how to interact with others. How to learn to be a person. I think that this server was perhaps the best way that any of us could have learned how to be a person from others. It was somewhere where we could learn, we could fail, and we could come back up again. We had a space to become ourselves, our true selves, and our true selves with others. 

About a year later, Splash 2021 arrived. In some ways, it was very similar to 2020, but it was so much different in many others. The official Splash discord server made its return (though it was a new server, not a revival of the old one). My friends from the un-official splash server and I split our time between the two, talking about what classes we were taking with people old and new. I spent that entire weekend talking nonstop on both servers, enjoying being with people at Splash. We brought some new friends from Splash 2021 into the un-official server, happily greeting them into our group.

I think what made Splash 2021 special was the fact that I entered it already knowing people that would be in attendance. It was about having a friend group to enter with and return to at any time during the event. I think it was also importantly the value that we put on having Splash again and being together again. We had all known each other for almost a year at that point, but had not attended Splash in the same way together. We all felt that same sadness when Splash was over, knowing that we would not be able to have such an event again for another year. We all had learned and valued so much from the last Splash and had done the same with this one. It was another weekend, filled with learning that was experienced, lived, and embraced that we were able to have once more.

Though all of the previous years were some of the best times I had ever had, Splash 2022 is by far the one that has affected me the most. I remember when I read the message in the unofficial server saying Splash was going to be in-person. There were so many reasons to be excited. It was a Splash just like in 2019, but also more importantly, one where I would know people who would be there. I read the message, talked with everyone about our excitement for Splash, and waited a few more months for the day to finally arrive.

I remember very distinctly the feeling of anticipation before Splash 2022. I woke up that morning, all by myself, and got ready to leave, filled with an anxious feeling within. I was old enough to drive myself, and I was the only person awake that early on a Saturday morning. I tried to do what I could to calm the feelings of anticipation, but I couldn’t get it to stop. I drove though Boston, and crossed the river, making it to a parking garage. When I left the garage and stood on the sidewalk in that cold, cloudless sky, the reality of it hit me. I was here. I was going to Splash. I was going to learn a lot, have an awesome time, and most importantly, meet some people who are very special to me. I continued on down the mostly empty morning sidewalks, eventually making it to the riverside. I paused for a moment, taking in the beautiful view of the skyline in the morning mist. After staring for a few more seconds, I turned down the sidewalk and moved to the student center, where I had agreed to meet with the rest of my Splash friends that morning.

I met up with the first of my friends that arrived, and we decided to go over to the gymnasium to finish registration for Splash. We walked just outside of the student center and joined a line that was already out the door. As we got in line, we noticed a familiar face just in front of us. We quickly found it was another one of our friends, who had brought two more along with her. Before even getting through registration, we had gathered a group of five.

We then finally began to move, and we made our way through the long line to finalize registration. On our way crossing back and forth through the pattern laid out in the gymnasium, we saw another one of our friends further back in the line. We crossed each other’s paths about three times as we waited to make it through registration. We all eventually made it, name tags and schedules in hand, and walked into lobby 13 to hang out before our classes and wait for more friends to arrive.

While we waited in lobby 13, the group grew and grew. By the time we had to all go to our first classes of the day, there were triple the amount of people we started with. It was amazing to see everyone who I had known for so long all together at Splash. We all compared our schedules, and went off to our first classes of the day.

After the morning classes, we all came together again for lunch that day. Some of our friends were there that weren’t in lobby 13 earlier, making the total group even larger than before. It was a lot of fun getting to talk with everyone again and have another chance to be together, talking and eating. I wish that the lunch period was longer, so we could have spent even more time together. 

However, it was dinner that night that was the highlight. We had all agreed beforehand that we were going to go to a nearby grilled cheese place called Roxy’s for our meal that night. We all met up in lobby 13, and then walked down the sidewalk, excited to share dinner together.

There was something special that I felt between all of us that night. It was that familiar feeling of freedom from being a group of high schoolers who had come together on their own, and the feeling of freedom of being ourselves. Being together and going to that grilled cheese restaurant for only an hour might have seemed like a small thing at first, but it was so much more in every way. I felt like I had found a community and a belonging with my Splash friends, and that we all had found a freedom in Splash. It was a night that we had waited two years for. It was a moment I didn’t want to go away. None of us did. 

After Splash on that first day, I went home and then immediately went to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, I repeated the same process of driving to Splash and getting breakfast that I had the day before. It almost felt like Splash was one long day instead of two separate ones. That day, we met up in lobby 13 again, had lunch together, and had a great time learning in our classes. We enjoyed another day of Splash, full of learning and full of friends.

At the end of that day, we had all agreed to go to lobby 13 to say goodbye to everyone else as Splash ended. It was such a sad feeling to see everyone leave. One by one, we left, away from the amazing experience of Splash 2022. As I made my own way back to the garage, it was impossible not to feel the melancholy of what had just happened. Splash was over, and I had to go back to normal the next day. That feeling of return to normalcy is something that I think speaks to the power of Splash. While I was there, everything felt like it was the best version of itself. It was a weekend, perfectly constructed, full of friends, fun, and being a nerd. It was a perfect event in every way. And it was something that I sadly had to leave that night. I walked down those sidewalks I had the day before, underneath the clear night sky.

The reason that Splash and the people I met there were so special to me was because of the type of people that Splash attracts. It’s the type of people who truly care about others, who want to learn something new, and who are passionate about their interests. It’s people who are accepting of others, who are open to new ideas, and are always making new friends. I’m not sure if there’s anywhere else where it’s so easy to meet such amazing people.

I want to end this story with some advice. Maybe you’re a Splash teacher, or maybe you’re a student who has the chance to go to Splash another time, or maybe you’re someone who hasn’t gone to Splash yet but will soon in the future.Though it may seem more difficult to connect in the same way as I did and many other in an unofficial discord server, meeting new people, especially at Splash, is one of the best things you can do. Talk to the person sitting next to you, sit at the lunch table of someone you recognize from some classes earlier, or make conversation with someone who’s question you thought was interesting.

They might just change your life.