Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Mission Mountain School

Graduated 97\'-Hey Kat

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Anonymous:
Hey there girls....My name is Betsy.
I was the the first youngest Girl to go to MMS and the first to start the 3 year 'trend'. The school was strictly 2yrs or less before me...  :smile: Whats up???
I had a 3 year stay and let me tell you it wasn't nice....but i learned A TON!!!!  If you girls walk away from MMS and say shit than SHAME on you... obviously you didnt get the point.
Interventions were indeed a biweekly if not weekly occurance in my stay.lasting no longer than two months and YES we showered. and interventions at times where for general reasons like the group is in a "bad place" But NOT for trading bras...what is that bull??  22mile ski?? thats nothing for what the 94-97 girls did. All night groups were a very very common thing. Life was focused on Exercise rather than other things.
DON'T GET ME WRONG!!! JUST TRYING TO SAY IT WAS FUCKING HARD.....But I am who i am due to the experince and time at mms. I know others would disagree but think about it. I have a genuine deep sense of who i am due to the tools and skills i learned. Granted I can't run a mile anymore in under 6 min but what general 'normal' person can?
Anyway. Love the place...went back as an intern for a summer and know a few of the girls on the post.....where are all the old timers????  Also keep in contack with Mike and deb who live one hour south of me and have taken care of the Mercer girls due to my nanny work experience.... and whos going to this reunion.  I think i should go just to represent the old timers.
Just wantt to put my two sense in. Feel free to contact me anyone......Kat.  betsyb4165@hotmail.com
Would love to share and talk . And no im not that bitchy...just have strong feelings and ties to the school.

katfish:
Hey Besty,

I definitely think that you and MMS were a perfect fit, a match made in heaven if you will. I almost forsaw that one- what did you do at MMS, I mean, as an intern?  Were you in college or was it just a after high school thing?  3 yrs is long time- where it like a badge of honor.  I would have likely killed myself had I had to stay there...  What year did you work there???  

  Truthfully, with all do respect, I  can only picture you as a staffer-  you and Laurel Hahn.  In my mind, because of your overzealousness and intolerance toward my experience on strugglingteens.com  a few years back-linked somewhere on this forum- a bit astonishing, I can only imaginwhat it you would have been like having you as a staff and me as a student.  given the lack of empathy and continual claims i was 'mms bashing (an MMS term), i think it would have sucked-- but maybe the students acutal felt connected with you.  See, what you said to me on the other forum sounded much like pompous mercerisms.  I can't help but tune out when I here the same things the school used to tell us re-iterated into my ear over and over again.  It's all rhetoric to me and maybe that's my problem. Truely, I want to understand why, while girls that think there were bad things about the school can admit the good things and talk about them, while the girls who are strong advocates for the school can not mention nor discuss the problems they have with the school ?  
We all know it's not a black and white issue, no matter what side of the fence we're on. Surely the worst person in the world has some good in them, so would MMS- break down that to John Mercer, Colleen Harrington, Mike Finn, Deborah Finn, why wouldn't they too?  
Anyway, as I was thinking about you interning, I envision you talking down to the students a lot...Not only b/c  it's a sense i get of the way you behaved when you first arrived at MMS and we met, but also b/c calling girls out was the general mood of students and aim of the school- being in the good graces of John and Mike was the utopia of our little Condon land--  I can't imagine much changed since i left.  I really mean all this in the most respectful way possible- I can't imagine not taking that feeling of being the one with 'power' and 'right' and it somehow escaping your sensibilities, especially if that is the conditioned response forced upon you (as you didn't have a choice, did you?) after 3 years of excersize and the MMS way?  Did they not afterall create and then repeatedly point out a different set of standard upon us everyday until it became 'natural' and we began to inact/ mimic what we saw?
(The fact that they're perceived as negative by me is one thing, the fact that they use coercive tecniques to maintain 'obedience' is another theoretical issue all together that I find in dire need of questioning in terms of legitamacy)

I too have very stong feelings on MMS, but much has been written on the topic- all, for the most part are about how the school harmed me or written in the defensive of others with like stories who feel that mms did equal, if not more, damage, no point to rehash it.

I'm curious how you are?  Were you working on a widerness camp degree- hence MMS?  Are you done with school?  You must be a few years younger than me, i would guess...  

I'll post more about me when it's not so late- I am a fool for staying up this late.

[ This Message was edited by: katfish on 2005-11-05 14:19 ]

Anonymous:
hey kat...thanks for replying so fast.
Well, I find humor in your opinions of me cause although i went to mms a bitch....im not that way now. I don't remember what I wrote before but from what I can remember i was fresh out of mms and im sorry if i talked down to you.
 DOn't get my wrong there were things that i disaggree with and which i want to post a new thread about.
I was an intern for one summer and NO i was not like La who was also an intern. She was mean and considered one of the "staff" by staff members and students. I on the other hand having always been "full of shit" was just a watcher. No i never worked for a wilderness...why?


Currently im a Certified Baker Cake decorating for Safeway....Living in arizona with my bf of 7+ years.
You?? WHats up with you.
Let me tell you Kat....I always liked you and I want to  keep in touch. I do have things baout MMS that i owuld like to share with someone....and I want the other newbees to see it from a differnt side. MMS got worse after you left...in terms of exercise and interventions. But im gonna post a huge devils advocate thing on this issue.
Tlak to you soon.
Betsy

katfish:
hey,

you're living with your birth father??  woa, that must be pretty cool.  I've lost my father to alzeimers and it's tough, i hope the relationship is going well and maybe I can live vicariously through you!

Yea, I heard about La, well, I'm glad you weren't like her.  I can only imagine.  I'm actaully suprised, you sound really good.  I'm happy for you, I hope that you're satisfied with your life...

A little about me- I'm graduating soon- finally.  I may go to grad school, i kind of would like to get PhD in political theory- i really love the topic-  if not I would like to study law... who know's. As of now I think I will be leaving NYC to greener pastures, maybe LA or Florida.  My g/f works in film, but is having second thoughts about pursuing it fully- so it's almost up to her where we go.  She can earn a liiving in Florida working with her step father building homes.  not thrilled about the prospect of FL, but I'm thrilled about her so I will likely soon live in a state that, last I heard, does not allow people like she and I do adopt kids... great.
Beyond that, not much is going on.  My mom's living in mexico, we talk when we can but aren't super close b/c...well, she's got issues that are difficult to reconcile in terms of our relationship. She's a Jehovi, need I say more?
By the way, how are your parents?  did you ever meet your biological mom?  
I heard MMS got way worse after I left- I would imagine you would call it 'better' though, no?  Presumably our definitions of what is 'good' and bad' differ? Curious what you have to say about your experience.  I have yet to understand how coercive practices, a. can be justified at any level and b. how they are, at their core truly effective and helpful and c. how, given it's helpful for some and harmful to others, there is no room for admission of guilt for those who it did wrong within its current framework...
I wonder, did you too have nightmares about MMS after you left- things like being sent back or going back and not being able to leave?
People have e-mailed Colleen seeking answers and (far as I know they did not reply) while, yes, some questions are fueled by hostility and anger, rightly so I may say, why wouldn't they as an institution reply- why the deliberate hold up on providing answers?  dunno.
ok, got to go.  I'm so drowsy, I have a beer everyonce in a while, oddly enough, even if I have one I feel hungover the next day.  I had 3 last night and I'm swimming in fuzziness...and I have a 10 pager due on (if you know anything about femenist political thought) Carol Pateman notion of 'sexual contract'.  It's going to be a long weekend-  but the Gay Pride parade of NYC crosses in front of our apt.  (it's madness like you wouldn't believe).  So despite my work I have my party hat on and am ready to nurse a beer for 5 hours- lest i incur the evil hang over.  

ps. reason i reply so quickly is i'm avoiding real work...i just can't wait to get my BA over and  done with it![ This Message was edited by: katfish on 2005-11-05 14:19 ]

Anonymous:
Hey Kat! Remember me?!?! This is Julie from Memphis, TN...jewlz:)

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