Principia friendships are unequaled. They last. You don’t have dorm mates at Principia. Or housemates. You have 30–50 house brothers and/or house sisters. Most athletes refer to their team as a family by the end of the season (some even by the end of the first week). When a graduate gets a new job, sometimes the first person to know about it is his major advisor.

Junior Matt Shaw recalls this memorable event from his freshman year: “So I’m sitting at my desk doing my homework, freshman housing, in Rackham. I had a knock at the door and my resident counselor’s head poked in. Then his cue stick came in, and he said, ‘Do you want to play pool? ‘I think we should play pool.’ So we played pool. It was late, probably 12 o’clock. That’s the kind of thing you remember.”

This wasn’t an isolated experience for Matt. “The professors are really open to talk to, and they are more friends than professors outside of class. The Integrated Principles of Business class involves three professors, so we got together, the whole class and the professors, and we had dinner and played trivia games. It’s just like hanging out with your friends, but with your professors.”

The political science professor who doesn’t miss a single one of your soccer games and whose voice you can hear cheering from the sidelines, or the biology professor who can’t get enough ultimate frisbee, just like you, or even the left-handed resident counselor who challenges you to an arm wrestling match — they’re all part of your Principia family, no matter what you call them or what their official job is.

And the Principia community doesn’t end when you drive off campus. Everywhere you travel you’ll run into Principians. It’s kind of weird, really. They’re everywhere. Another way to think of it is that you’ll have lots of free places to stay when you travel. Each year Principia students come from about 40 states and 20 different countries, and alumni from around the world return to campus by the hundreds for reunions.

Court Fleming is about to graduate and leave Buck House behind, but in spirit his relationship with his house brothers will live on. He knows this, and says, “Living in the same place with people for three years will establish relationships that become lifelong friendships. There are still guys who have graduated that I consider brothers, and I continue to keep in touch with them.” Here are some reasons why:

What was your favorite Buck House moment?
CF: It was a prank my sophomore year. Part of an ongoing, playful feud. We stole Lowrey’s [another men’s house] wrestling mat one night. It was a concerted effort by most of the guys in our house because we had to block doorways so that Lowrey couldn’t stop us, and also load the mat into somebody’s truck for a quick getaway. It was definitely an adrenaline-pumping moment, and to successfully steal their mat on the first try, which is vital to their house meetings, was awesome.

What’s great about house traditions? And which is your favorite?
CF: House traditions give us a sense of identity. A tradition has always been that we are the “house of gentlemen.” Now everybody does not always feel or identify with that philosophy, but a majority of the guys are able to rally around that idea. It is a great starting point, and from this tradition other practices have stemmed. For example, we have “Buck Tuesdays,” where most of the guys wear ties, dress up, shave, and go to the CSO service in the Chapel.

In the wintertime, we offer Buck Breakfast on Saturday mornings. We make everything from scratch. Omelettes, waffles, pancakes, French toast . . . . You name it, we serve it. It’s an awesome service to the community, and it’s also a great time for the guys who work, because we usually have three cooks crammed into our tiny kitchen in addition to a dishwasher and several waiters. It gets pretty hectic when we run out of tables for our customers, but it’s a fun chance for students and faculty to get a great breakfast if they are willing to brave the cold and wake up before noon. This is probably my favorite tradition because of the social relationship with the guys in the house as well as the customers.

Another tradition, since we’re on the topic of food, is the Annual Pig Roast in the spring. It’s our big barbeque, and it is basically a formal gathering which welcomes the new guys into the house and says goodbye to the guys who will be graduating.

What about your resident counselors (RCs) at Principia?
CF: Josh, the RC of Rackham (the dorm that I was in freshman year, as well as my junior year as an RA), is one of the main reasons why I got addicted to ultimate frisbee, because he is always out there playing on the Chapel green. This will be the second year that we will be on the same frisbee team in the annual tournament in the spring. In Buck, Garry is our all-star first baseman for softball intramurals. Not only does he have a good glove, but he smashed some home runs last year. We were the champions.

Aside from their athletic endeavors, I have enjoyed my RCs’ confidential counseling and conversation over the years. They are invaluable resources for discussing personal, house, and community issues. They are really good at making each person think for himself or herself and come up with answers on their own. They do not spoon-feed you typical Sunday-school answers, but they want to see the personal growth of each individual. I’m not going to say that they are responsible for my growth, but they have certainly contributed to it over the past four years. Their genuine desire to see us succeed is something that I feel you can really only find at Prin or at a school of a similar size.