What We Are

We are many things. We are people interested in games. We are people interested in Comics. We are people interested in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Some of us love books, others love movies, some sit all day at a computer, and even some are all three. We encompass such a wide variety of interests that grouping us under the category of "The Gaming Club" just doesn't do us justice. Mae Kalwick, our founder, perhaps describes us best in a statement she wrote concerning the genesis of the Yachting Club.

The Yachting Club: Beginning of An Era?
By Mae Kalwaic

I feel a little sheepish telling you this but there was once another Yachting Club on Guilford College Campus. I didn’t know this until after the clubs creation, and if I had known I might have chosen a different name. Might. I’m awfully attached to the name, I’m not sure who thought of it, or how it came about but I like it. A lot. Sure, the Yachting Club summons up images of rich white boys in white polo shirts and sweaters tied about their broad shoulders with names like Travis and Steven, hopping about a large boat on a crystal blue bay, working on sails, and generally looking like a commercial for Tommy Boy Cologne. For me however, the name summoned up an image of revolution. Inspired by the forces of chaos, regular exercise and a lot of caffeine the Yachting Club was an idea that was meant to be so flexible as to incorporate everything that I thought was fun.

I’m probably getting ahead of myself here.

What I really want to do is tell you the story of a little Geek who grows up to start a club. A very special club.

You see, at one time, I thought I was alone. While everyone else was reading the Babysitters club I was reading The Moat in Gods Eye, I, Robot and every Star Wars and Star Trek Novel I could get my grubby little hands on. While other little girls experimented with lip-gloss and mooned over 20 something celebrities I was going down a different path. I loved superheroes, I made costumes, wrote stories; this was what I loved. Needless to say I was not accepted into the general population.

Outcast. Freak. Werido. Dyke?

Don’t ask me how that last one fit in but apparently they all get lumped together under the general title Geek. I was ashamed for a while. I got in the proverbial closet where many outcasts, freaks, weirdoes, dykes and other assorted characters live. This is not a politically correct story where I tell you I learn to accept myself for who I am, because getting in that closet was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I learned some of their ways. And you know who I’m talking about when I say THEM, you know, the kids to pay attention to what’s IN, who shop for clothes together in order to make sure everyone is conforming, who change their likes and dislikes along with the crowd. THEM. I learned how to act like a cheerleader, how to dress, how to fit in, how to get things done in the system. I also found other people there, in that closet and together we were stronger. Then I came out of that metaphorical closet and hit the ground running. I started a role-playing club in my high school. But see now I didn’t fit THEIR stereotypes, I could walk their walk, talk their talk and still be my geeky self. It was fun. But I wanted more.

You see, role-playing is a soft drug, and it leads to harder ones. I wanted Guilford to be different. Role-playing is nice, but there are comic books out there, science fiction books that blow your mind, art, dance, martial arts, and the coolest, most diverse group of people I’ve ever met in my life. This club was going to encompass all of it, card games, comedy, world takeover plans, animation, superheroes, everything I ever thought was cool.

And I think a LOT of things are cool.

I didn’t do this alone, my partner in crime David Simon built this club as much as I did, at least in the beginning. I met him in my sophomore year, his freshman year, and somehow got the impression I knew him before. Oh, it could be because he was a mixture of many cool people I’ve met in the past, or perhaps it was because I’d seen him around and he fit my expectations, but the part of me that believes in the fantastical tells me that we’ve met before. I imagine that in some past life we were brother and sister, slaves along side of the Nile our fingers cracking and bleeding in the dry heat, or perhaps we vomited the black blood of the plague, but my favorite story, which is Daves theory, is that we were hamsters together spinning on a little wheel. I mean, we were friends then, sharing the wheel, taking turns to run happily going nowhere. Those were the days.

The idea for the club wasn’t mine, in fact I’m not sure where it came from, I’m just the instrument for the movement. We wrote the constitution over the summer Dave and I had these ideas, we don’t just want to take this to the next level, it’s gotta go to the next, next level. We’re talking table top, we’re talking LARPS, we’re talking movie nights, costume parties, discussion groups, figuring out way to carry out everything we said in our constitution and more.

Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Rhetorical Question Only. Moving on. . .

With the support of our cohorts, Nick, Alison, Greg, the Spaceboy, Jon, and, of course, they who shall not be named we started the club. It wasn’t always easy. Convincing a bunch of hippies that it is perfectly kosher to have world takeover plans in your club constitution takes quite a bit of social maneuvering. But we won. We won by sheer force of numbers, by the support of a great number of new friends. It was funny, the people coming out of the woodwork, I was going to senate and all of a sudden there were these people going with me, I didn’t know them, they didn’t know me, but they supported me. Talk about community. They seemed surprised at Steering Committee and Senate that there were such a number of us there. They underestimated the draw of something like this, but I knew I wasn’t alone. I could sense it, like a rabid hamster, I could smell you.

You see, we knew you were out there. We foresaw your coming, just as you summoned us. Man made god and god returned the favor. Such are we.

You see we (because I’m not talking about myself anymore, I’m a part of a club, therefore a "we") keep making new friends, keep expanding, and now we are one of the largest clubs on campus, after less than a year. The Yachting club, it doesn’t make any sense, it’s not conventional, and we’re just not like other clubs. And you haven’t seen a damn thing yet.