“She gets down like this,” Chris Anderson says as he goes on all fours. Aster and Chris, both seniors, had recently watched the movie “Sasquatch Sunset” and are now reenacting it to everyone’s horror. “The son is standing six feet away from her, getting ready to catch the baby as if it is going to shoot out,” Chris now gets up and open his arms showing how to catch a sasquatch baby.
Senior Amanda Yee, who is just trying to eat her chocolate-coated strawberries, laughs so hard she covers her face. Aster points, confirming Chris’s accuracy in the portrayal. I watch on, recording and laughing as the scene unfolds.
Logan House reopened in the 2022-23 school year as Williston’s first all-gender dorm. In its first year, it had two senior proctors, Liz Gluz ’23 and Elsa Frankel ’23, and four other people within the dorm: Chris, Aster, me, and a little into the year, Cannon Carr. The next year, Amanda and Aster became the proctors and midway through Logan’s second year, Wakanda Hu joined. This year River H. became a Loganite.
Our small common room getting loud with stupid stories and laughter is not uncommon; it is a key part of the Logan experience.
These hang outs are some of River’s favorite moments.
“Every night, everyone hangs out and talks, and if we don’t talk it’s just good vibes. I didn’t have that in my other dorm, but I have that here.”
Everyone sits in the common room on one of the two couches or four cushy chairs. The seating arrangement surrounds a small coffee table, often home to a teapot, water boiler, or an instant pot. Ingredients are strewn over a cabinet, while another shelving unit is full of board games, and the third with books.
It is the place, as Amanda puts it, of “free performances we get in the dorm – not just Chris playing his guitar and singing in his room, but the times when Cannon and Aster do a funny dance performance or when Aster did all the scenes of ‘Something Rotten’ in the common room by themselves.”
Aster was the Assistant Director of “Something Rotten,” the 2024 musical. Most of Logan participates in Williston productions, so these impromptu free showings are frequent.
This room is where we have hosted multiple Fantastic Fridays. These events included one of Cannon’s favorite moments in which, “We made all these mug cakes, and they all exploded.”
It is in this little basement common room where Logan really exists.
Aster remarks, “All my friends are in the dorm. It’s like a party.”
Chris values the close-knit dorm environment.
“I like that it is a small dorm,” he said. “By nature, that means less mess, drama, and noise. We are all friends, so it’s chill and relaxing.”
Amanda’s favorite part about Logan is “the people.”
Beatrice Cody, a Latin teacher and Logan dorm parent since last year, agrees with Amanda and notes that she values the space Logan has become.
“It is the sense of community and the mission,” she said. “There is an extra sense of support and openness to everybody being who they are. There is a realness and authenticity and something very accepting about this dorm.”
Our other current dorm parents include M. Haas, Mx. Adrain, Mr. Raffetto, and Ms. Russ.
Aster enjoys Logan because he can find a sense of belonging here.
Cannon said he, “always felt slightly uncomfortable with the aggressive masculinity. John Hazen and John Wright were very masculine and heteronormative, and I wanted to express myself in a different way.”
However, it can be hard to move to Logan or say you live here because some people on campus refer to the dorm negatively. Being the “weird dorm” is a common sentiment Loganites think other people believe about the dorm.
Amanda feels “a bit of hesitation” when saying she lives in Logan. Her hesitation is rooted in experiences she has had of overhearing people talk about Logan.
“During junior year orientation, I had just moved into Logan,” she said, “and this group of guys next me were asking, ‘Do you guys know who is living in Logan this year?’ And then someone was like, ‘The trans dorm?’”
Aster has overheard comments about Logan as well.
“I’ve heard people making jokes about us being the ‘gay dorm,’” he said. “When they use the word gay it is not in a good way. And not everyone in our dorm is gay, that is not the only term under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.”
Chris recalled when someone was dared to sit with him.
“We were sitting as a dorm together during last year’s Willympics, since we are all friends,” he said. “Then this guy just came down and sat with us without saying anything. We all were like, ‘Hello?’ and we said, ‘Hi, what’s your name?’ Because we thought he was just a guy who wanted to socialize, but turns out his friend group just dared him to sit with us.”
Aster found it important that we won lip sync last year; he felt it helped dispel some preconceptions about the dorm.
“It felt like the first time the school recognized us,” he said. “I had a lot of fun, and people saw us for something else than being the ‘gay dorm.’”
It was in that dingy common room where we rehearsed the lip sync. We argued, laughed, got annoyed, had fun, and brainstormed.
It is that room Cannon appreciates but thinks could be improved. He and others suggested fixes like a renovated basement, updated kitchen, and air conditioning.
But regardless of complaints, and some students not understanding how amazing the dorm is, Loganites will still be having the best time in their common room, just hanging out.
Cannon put it perfectly: “Logan is the best dorm, in my opinion.”