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Jul 30, 2015 Exploration Programs Conversation

Meet Michael from California

Michael's second year at Explo at Wellesley brings him even closer to his home on campus: the Ga-ga pit. And he has a hunch as to why Ga-ga ball is so popular ...

Liam Brooks

Michael's second year at Explo at Wellesley brings him even closer to his home on campus: the Ga-ga pit. And he has a hunch as to why Ga-ga ball is so popular at the program: it's a metaphor for Explo itself.

One of the reasons I come back here to Ga-ga ball every time is because with Ga-ga ball, you get in and everyone's playing at once, and if you get out the next game starts within about a minute or two. Also, with Ga-ga ball there are always people coming up with great new ways to play it, and to play it smart rather than just hitting the ball as hard as you can.

At the beginning of the session, nobody would try to catch the ball, which is one way you can get someone out — it just stayed as an extra rule at the bottom of the instruction sheet that no one really thought about. But now, everyone goes for catches. There's a lot of room for innovation and creativity that you just don't get as easily as with other games.

I guess I like Explo so much because it's its own sort of Ga-ga pit. If you look at other games, you see two people playing and everyone else standing around — the five or ten percent thing. That's school back home. Then you look at Ga-ga ball and everyone's in the pit, running around and laughing and coming up with new things. That's Explo. That's where I want to be.

Liam Brooks