User:Switch 1166057

Intro/Summary

Hello from CTYer 1166057.
I go by my nickname (Switch) and my real name is Sarah Badenhorst or 건장미 (I'm double nationality). If you think you know me from CTY, I'm that English girl in the green jacket who runs everywhere... and was also the JHU 22.1 Empress
I'm currently a 16 year old sophomore from Birmingham, England. I've done CTY every year (except for 2019) from 2014, although I've only done three years onsite. Frankly, I'd probably be six feet under and with no headstone without CTY, so if you're young enough/smart enough to do CTY, PLEASE DO!
Well thanks for all the fish.
-Switch
19:44, 5 February 2020 (GMT)

CTY and I

This is a recap of why CTY is so important to me and my history with it. it's adapted from my personal entry in the Book of love (JHU emperor/empress artefact)
In 2014, there was a scrawny (eurasian) british kid that ranked her skills in science, math and English as high, average and low respectively. This was on a survey she took after the SCAT where she performed particularly well and was admitted to CTY. The eight year old still didn’t understand the concept that she was “gifted,” and didn’t even believe she was smart. After all, she lived in a world where her high test scores were constantly degraded and disparaged, her teachers favoured behaviour and effort over merit and she mistook her boredom and complacency for outright ignorance. Regardless, she enjoyed her first course of CTY online in the same year as it gave her something deeper and something of actual substance to learn from, unlike the primitive and dull topics she was taught at school. And regardless again, she was breaking down. Although subtle at first, from the age of 5 she corroded from being a hyper, expressive, curious kid to being antisocial, adverse and cynical. She also lost her thirst for learning. After all, what is there to ask when the only answers you ever get are “I don’t know,” or “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

So when she became a nine year old as she was bullied, had been repeatedly retested for types of neurodivergence she didn’t understand (for four years) and lost the only friend of her life. Her parents became more abusive and she thought there was no way the high school she wanted to go to would accept her, let alone give her the scholarship she needed. So she decided to quit. She was a coward who couldn’t hold a knife to her own flesh, but she wanted everything to end. For the pain to end… but she also knew death would hurt her. So she decided to build up her tolerance. She tested drowning and breaking her flesh so when she finally did it, it wouldn’t be so bad. You have to understand, she had adopted this view that only certain creatures have the power to forsake themselves and that this is acquired through some sick higher enlightenment. She had come to this conclusion after watching the documentary called “the girl who talked to dolphins,” and therefore did not understand her teacher’s horror when after being caught with a staple gun, the girl told her teacher she didn’t understand why a bad life was worth living.

But in July she attended her first course of CTY on-site for 15.2. And even her 16 year old self, seven years on cannot fully explain what happened. But I can say for the first time the child found “people like me.” People who you can talk to freely, people who get your jokes, people who know what you’ve gone through and have gone down their own route to where you are. The girl reclaimed her energy, but still hadn’t quite managed to utilize it.

So when she returned in 17.2, and once again saw fireflies burn through the night and the tree swallows sweep under the American sun, she was lucky enough to finally join the people she found. Running under the ashes with swallowtail silk cleaving to your clothes and watching the ga ha pit from under cockram’s tree with friends and teachers, She made a home. And better, still was due to attend an academic high school. This was not the one she wanted to go to as a kid as now she had become powerful enough to deny them. And at this even better school it would be like CTY everyday. As she thought.

The girl now attended an academic school which supposedly admitted only the top 5%. But was still alone where “intellectual” was the swear word it always had been. She started developing and fighting a type of apathy making her impartial not just to people, but to her studies. So she cried in floods when Covid hit, not for those she knew she would lose, but for those she knew she would never get to lose at CTY. Her parents were both researchers in genomics and cancer sciences, so whilst the world was telling themselves “it will be over by the fall,” she was told to expect five years and be robbed of her never more year as fulfillments would be reduced to tragedies and one hits never rise. So she cried in floods when she learnt of her status of a two more being preserved in 2022. But when she through some freak accident of fate was crowned in a zoom call on 2013 by the legend that is Amelia Orwant, she had no idea what to do. She cared for camp absolutely, and at this point was approaching her eight year of CTY and third year on-site. CTY was what stopped her from being 6 feet under and with no headstone, so of course she wanted to save the traditions that connected the people there. But how could she

… and I have thought I was the least qualified person to do my job. I wrote the book of love, but was practically prepared to hand it over to the first human being I saw on camp (this is why in my foreword I did it introduce myself as a position holder). Until I got there. Not only did the high squirrel count boost my confidence, but what did even more was the fact that people I hardly knew were so interested in what I had to say and the history of my camp. ( After my five year wilderness period, I often forget what ctyers truly are. And I confess even having had doubts that my forevermore predecessor would help me with tradition. This proved my disconnect.) Because when my empress and pedicessor told me that as long as I was passionate and knowledgeable I could do my job, I did not believe it. But now know it to be true. Trust me. I came to camp as a flying squirrel clutching a foreign passport and two mere copies of legendary artefacts, but I did my duty. I built on something that will last. As long as people remember and there are people ready to learn (which there always will be) the pen will never come to rest. So if **you** happen to read this and you need ANYTHING from me about CTY, please talk to me. Whether I'm eighteen or eighty, I'll do my absolute best to help. If you think I won't care anymore, you're not worth my time and I have too much to do, I assure you I won't. The fact that you've ventured out to find this is a very good indicator to me that you care and that I'd be honored to help you. And if it makes you feel better, I first came into contact with my predecessor (and legend) Amelia Orwant by reading her own realcty page and trying to reach out... So you never know, talk to me and you could become a position holder ;). So from all of us at JHU, past and present, we like you, we love you, we CTY you and are with you forever in spirit. And “don’t panic!”

• puff of logic*

Course list

Here is a list of courses I have done in previous years/are currently doing/am confirmed to do. If you are a classmate/site-mate feel free to contact me.
2014.6 (CTY Online) YRS Wild Things –––––––(Course started 2014, ended 2015)
2015.1 (CTY Online) Elementary Problem Solving 2
2015.3 (CTY Online) YRS Robot Encounter
2015.2 (ALEXANDRIA) Mathematical Problem Solving 2
2016.3 (CTY Online) YRS Magical Life Lessons
2016.5 (CTY Online) The Process of Writing
2017.2 (SANDY SPRINGS) Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
2018.3 (CTY Online) Honors Algebra 2
2020.3 (CTY Online) Honors Pre-Calculus
Sadly, I did nothing in 2019
2020.3 (CTY Online) AP Calculus BC –––––––(Course started 2020, ended 2021)
2022.1 (JHU/BALTIMORE) Investigations in Engineering (IENG)

• YRS=Young Reader's Series

Passionfruit speech

“Notice. Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted. Persons attempting to find a moral in it will bu banished. Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot…” So let the chaos begin.

Hello. I’m Sarah Jangmi Badenhorst, but I go by Switch. And I would like to apologise if I sound groggy, as I’m about to do the second all-nighter of my life, with my first being on my double-flight journey here. And many would ask why I bother with some summer camp for all that. Afterall, this isn’t my first year. I have had the pleasure of 8 years of CTY mania, despite living at least 3000 miles away from any site. So I think I should explain myself. Especially to the members of the community and culture that, as a position holder, I’m honoured to aid and advance. One thing many CTYers come to accept, whilst remaining completely baffled by is the sort of magic of CTY. The force that by some miracle allows so many weird and wonderful people to forge some of the best relationships of their lives in a matter of weeks. This is why I keep coming back. Although I love the opportunity to seek more advanced or intuitive knowledge, I have that at CTY online. It’s culture I’m onsite for. It means I come out to the states where the swallowtails flutter under the sun and fireflies burn through the night, instead of back on the overgrown rock I inhabit. There’s this “CTY spark” that most of us have that allows us to make a connection and a home here. I would quote admin and say “I found my tribe.” And it may be true that I’m not very well-liked back “home” and I’m seeing light for the first time in the dark, but I KNOW this community is unique. I’ve never found another place where I am so free to act so nerdy and intellectually obscure yet so personal and so genuine. And even IF people back home listen, they never hear you. At CTY there are so many people who not only listen but understand. And maybe teach you to do the same. The people here are individuals. They go out and DO things to the world.

So with that said, I would also like to explain why traditions are so important to me and why I value them as part of CTY culture. It is my job to spread them and adapt them, even though some may seem trivial or obscure. And as unconventional as traditions may seem, they give the community something to connect with. Even across halls, residencies and even other sites, we all have our tales of dancing with glowsticks through the night, coming home with love tape peeling off our shirts and the myths, legends and SCANDALS of casino night. (Listen, I played, I won, I got pick-pocketed $400, made it back and lost a horse race. It’s a joy-ride). And I know how much tradition means to people. I know. Honest truth, when boarding my first plane here, I met a forevermore. An alumnus. A past student. She recognised me from the lanyards I had tied to my violin case to stop them from getting in the way of my hands when she was waiting behind me in line. And the one thing she did before we left was say “I went a LONG time ago. So… do you still have those dances every Friday?” And the only thing I did was crack a joke about how we still couldn’t talk about it in public because of a certain line. And she got it! And that was it! Nothing about the classes or the staff or the students, but the culture that makes them all so much sweeter. So even if some may scorn spirit days or curse our chants, tradition is worth protecting. And although tradition changes, that’s ok. We find new rituals to share that mean something to us as we also preserve old traditions that meant something to someone else. And although some traditions may not resonate with people as much and drop in popularity, that’s ok. Because they belong to us now. And it’s been an honour to help spread such traditions. And it’s a job I was entrusted with by a past monarch, Amelia Orwant, who was one of the most passionate, persistent and free-spirited people I’ve ever come across, who I hope I’ve done proud. And with that in mind, it’s not just me who can spread traditions. And it’s not just any monarch either. If ANYONE is in any way inspired, go out and build your own traditions. Go out again to CTY if you can or even go make your own “CTY” and spread the things YOU value. Although position holders act as figure heads, we’re ultimately figure heads. We act to represent our culture. It’s the community that truly embodies and endorses it. So if anyone HEARS and UNDERSTANDS, I have a final request. There’s a spirit day. A very special one here called “Remembering Sunday.” It happens the sunday after each session, and it is a day to reach out to and remember with all the people we’ve met. To tell of the legends and the lore of our time here and establish the fact that even off-campus, CTY never goes away. It’s a long 49 weeks away from camp, so why spend it alone? Reach into your contacts app (If you can find it -Looks to Gabriel Dowd!-), check out the realcty wiki, go on community portals like the discord server, “Server 42” or your group chats and keep the conversation going.

So back to tradition. I stand here as a maybemore. I’m possibly a twomore, probably a onemore and hopefully not a nevermore, but I don’t know how long I have left. And although I may not be around next session to ride the chaos and spin my tales, I know of a number of individuals who speak of their own stories. And some I particularly want to give some volume to. So I’m passing on my title as empress and the holder of the book to someone who has the true CTY spark as she goes about life with an air of eagerness and wonder. So Mare, do you have anything to say? - Mare’s acceptance- I would also like to bring up a future monarch of the blood. Someone who is entrusted to assist the emperors and empresses. A true center of calmness and person to rely on. Sam Nyo, do you have any words? -Sam’s acceptance- So before I disappear in a puff of logic, I’m going to leave you with a quote. It’s the one I used in my foreword when transcribing the book of love, the “good parts,” version, from the scans of it’s lost second edition. A quote I left to explain my feelings for CTY and one I’d quite like to share ("We're going to meet a lot of lonely people over the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say 'We're remembering.' That's how we win out in the long run) Sincerely yours and one day forevermore, Switch. I like you I love you, I CTY you, I love CTY and I love the passionfruit -Swings lanyard-

Contact

RealCTY: Comment on this page's comment section below.
Email: "Switch.1166057@icloud.com"
Discord:Username:"Switch", ID:"1431". My DMs are always open and you can find me on Server 42. If you are a CTYer and want to join click here[1]
Reddit: I am on the CTY reddit as Switch_19102, although I rarely check it.