Face-to-face with his former self, Bwog staffer and summer denizen Armin Rosen reflects on the pre-college phenomenon. More after the jump.

Of all the traumatic events that marred what would have otherwise been a happy and productive middle school career, my brush with president Dwight David Eisenhower was one of the worst. Going to an unfamiliar, far-off corner of the globe with People to People--Eisenhower's Cold War-era "student ambassador" program--sure did seem like a good idea at the time. But since that time was the summer before seventh grade and that part of the world consisted mostly of dusty, open wasteland (nothing personal, Australia--I'm just not a fan), the ten days had a certain Hell-on-earth quality to it that took me a while to shake.

So when a small army of innocent-looking high schoolers in identical People-to-People polo shirts descended on Van Am quad this afternoon, I vanquished any lingering Proustian associations and endeavored to figure out why they were here.

The almost fascist uniformity of dress--maroon polos paired with heavy, sweat-stained khaki pants--must have been a red flag for at least of few of these kids. And as a pre-college program brat myself (Summer at Brown, '04), I know that freedom is crucial in staving off insanity whilst surrounded by hundreds of overeager resume-padders like yourself. So did these kids realize what they had gotten themselves in to?