The Campitor: Graduation Issue, 2019-2020

News: As hiking booms, reflecting on Cary’s greenways

Opinion: Hair Etc. is a mark of Vietnamese-American culture

Opinion: The coronavirus won’t hurt your college applications

Quiz: Everyone matches a CA building. Here’s yours

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2019-2020

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The Campitor CARY ACADEMY STUDENT NEWS SOURCE

ISSUE 4

2019-2020

NEWS

ISSUE 4

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dear Reader, This isn’t the senior year anyone dreamed of.

We haven’t been to school since February 28th. That’s over one entire summer vacation, 9 and a half weeks.

We missed out on the spoon game, College Shirt Day, saying last goodbyes to many of our classmates and teachers, and a hundred other little moments.

But I don’t want to dwell on those things, and I’m sure you don’t, either.

This edition of the Campitor, besides bringing you your normal selection of news, opinion, and even a quiz, is meant to celebrate the class of 2020 and everything we’ve brought to Cary Academy. Our senior year might have been cut short, but we still brought our incredible talents and hard work to our school. We were star swimmers, debate champions, physics whizzes, and talented (and enterpreneurial) artists. As we move onto the rest of our lives, it will be hard to forget this year, and I have no doubt we’ll find ourselves back on CA campus one way or another.

So class of 2020, this one is for you.

This will also be my last issue editing the Campitor.

It has been an incredible experience seeing this paper grow from the ground up, with new staff members joining almost every other issue, and a switch to an (almost) print format. These last two years as Editor-in-Chief have been a privilege, and I’ll miss this paper dearly.

As we look towards the 2020-2021 year, I am proud to announce that rising seniors Claire Ferris and McKay Lucas will become co-Editors. I can’t wait to see where they take the Campitor; I know it will be amazing.

Of course, this graduation issue would not be complete without a shoutout to our graduating senior contributors: Sydney Nguyen, Will Aarons, Addie Esposito, Sam Dietrich, Loren Troan, Kaela Curtis, and Jessica Zhong. You all are amazing.

Thank you also this issue’s writers, Claire Ferris, McKay Lucas, Mary Esposito, Sydney Nguyen, Addie Esposito, and Loren Troan, and to our faculty advisor, Ms. Buie.

I hope you enjoy this issue. As for next time, I know I’m leaving the Campitor in great hands.

Signing off, Cate Pitterle Editor-in-Chief

THE CLASS OF 2020 Will Aarons | Casey Abernathy | Nate Alexander | Sachin Amaresh | Marie Anderson | Tesnim Awel | Shon Bagade | Carson Baker | Kenan Balkas | Idil Baran | Izzy Barnette | Emma Brown | Adam Cervenka | Helen Chen | Anna Cheng | Felipe Chiavegatto | Preston Coates | Parker Courts | Lara Crochik | Laura Cunningham | Kaela Curtis | Ted Davis | Sam Dietrich | Julia Dorfman | Victoria Du | Shiloh Duffy | Sarah Eichler | Dorrit Eisenbeis | Alexandra Ellison | MaryKate Englehardt | Ryan Erickson | Addie Esposito | Dane Fekete | Teo Feliu | Elsa Field | Hannah George | David Go | Rishi Goswami | Zariah Greene | Katie Grush | Amy Han | Abby Hook | Lauren Hsu | Elena Huang | Brett Ingram | Olivia Ingram | Shanelle Jayawickreme | Jono Jenkins | Jaida Jett | Uri Joseph | Finn Kerns | John Kesler | Elly Kim | Will King | Madeline Kopf | Anna Lane | Ava Lathan | Lia Lathan | Oyinlola Lawal | Leonora Lee | Cindy Li | Lexi Lierman | Ben Logel | Savannah Lu | Christina Mangelsdorf | Claire Marshall | Scott Matton | Haley McGuire | Margalit Mermelstein | Matthew Modi | Obinna Modilim | Hunter Moore | Owen Mulqueen | Mesha Mumford | Keely Murphy | Om Naphade | Sydney Nguyen | Ethan Norfleet | Alex Nunnally | Hannah Owens | Sheridan Page | Saajan Patel | Parker Perkins | Cate Pitterle | Harrison Reed | Laney Rouse | Michelle Rouse | Rohan Sachdev | Atticus Sauls | Grant Scotto | Becca Segal | Allen Shen | Aidan Sher | Erin Singleton | Evan Snively | Adithi Sundaram | Christianna Swift | Victor Taylor | Andrew Terminiello | Alyssa Thompson | Jack Todd | Loren Troan | Niki Vilas Boas | Maddy Walker | Eric Wang | Kelly Watkins | Taylor Weber | Tim Werner | David White | Morgan White | Kenneth Williams | Koen Winemiller | Kailey Wrege | Eric Xing | Saavan Yerramsetty | Jessica Zhong | Colin Zhu | Constantin Zodl

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The Campitor

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Editorial Staf f Cate Pitterle

McKay Lucas

Ms. Allyson Buie

Claire Ferris

Editor-in-Chief cate_pitterle@caryacademy.org

Faculty Advisor allyson_buie@caryacademy.org

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Assistant Editor mckay_lucas@caryacademy.org

Assistant Editor claire_ferris@caryacademy.org

2019-2020

NEWS

ISSUE 4

Admin optimistic for summer events, 2020-2021 year Uncertainty still pervades, with a variety of options possible.

Cate Pitterle Class of 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect Cary Academy, slowing the administration’s decision-making processes and making planning events stressful, administrators are working within the unknown to gather data and prepare for an altogether uncertain future.

The release of a new website, CA: United, dedicated to planning the 2020-2021 academic year, on March 18 displayed some options for learning, but cleared little of the smoke when it comes to definite answers.

However, Dr. Ehrhardt is optimistic that next school year will move forward with in-person classes. “However, things will look a bit different!” he said. The school is currently exploring multiple hybrid modes of learn-

ing, including restrictions on large gatherings such as lunch and presentations, or, alternatively, a 50/50 split with only half of students on campus at any given time.

With the 2019-2020 year rapidly coming to a close, events for June and August are scheduled to move forward. On June 1 and 2, seniors will drop off tablets and parking tags; the rest of the upper school will follow on June 2 and 3 to clean out lockers, drop off tags, and return sports uniforms.

On June 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., a graduation parade is planned for seniors.

Head of Upper School Robin Follet declined to describe the parade in detail, saying that he wanted it to be a “surprise” for seniors.

And on August 1, an in-person graduation ceremony is planned for the graduating class of 2020.

No details have yet been released about the event.

“Now that we’ve selected dates for events, things are moving quickly to put

Photo from CA:United CA released a new website, CA:United, to keep the community up-to-date on health alerts.

together special virtual activities,” said Dr. Ehrhardt.

Cary Academy is also working to retain its style of learning, made more difficult by online classes. Mr. Follet said that the main goal for the 2020-2021 school year is “to provide the signature CA education for our students, one that allows students to own their learning, no matter what.”

Despite the challenges, Mr. Follet sees Cary Academy’s use of technology as a strength. “Luckily, our faculty have experience working in virtual environments, and our students have comfort with the systems as well,” he said. “So while it’s stressful working through the nuances of what needs to happen when, we know education is continuing.”

Over two months have passed since Cary Academy moved online, but the unknown still makes the future murky. While it’s still too early to know how next year will look, emphasized Dr. Ehrhardt, “our collective can-do spirit is uplifting.”

“We are looking at a variety of ways we can keep learning moving forward and keep everybody healthy and safe.”

Hair Etc: A local token of Vietnamese culture “It seems normal from the outside....

But it’s the ‘Etc.’ that’s the operative word.”

Sydney Nguyen Class of 2020

Hair Etc. is the name of the Vietnamese-run hair salon near my old house. It lies in Morrisville Square, surrounded by Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese restaurants, just a minute walk away from a Kumon center. It seems normal from the outside, and the name describes exactly what they offer. But it’s the “Etc.” that’s the operative word.

Not only does Hair Etc. trade in trims, they also sell fruits, Vietnamese cuisine, occasional manicures, and provide a platform for various Vietnamese charities.

It goes without saying that they also deal in gossip. It

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was from Hair Etc. that my family learned about Nhân Ái Compassion a few years ago, and when they decided to send me to Vietnam along with our normal monetary donations, it was at Hair Etc. that I picked up my welcome gift from the organization. It has become so normal to accompany my dad in bringing out trays of hard-to-find Vietnamese food – bánh bèo, paté, bánh chưng, and more – that I’ve forgotten that normal hair salons don’t sell traditional foods. Non-Vietnamese clients look on in awe whenever we mysteriously procure tropical finds from the back room, including durian (the infamous smelly fruit), lychees, rambutans, and longans (all conceptually similar to lychees), and even entire jackfruits (spiny on the outside and sweet on the inside).

I’ve noticed that Vietnam-

ese American people are uniquely entrepreneurial, building up nail salons and restaurants from nothing.

It’s not only in America, though – despite living in a communist country, Vietnamese people are the most capitalist I’ve ever seen. Every single house hosts some kind of business, from a restaurant, to a bubble tea shop, to a grocery store, to a clothing shop. My aunt in Saigon lives behind her jewelry store; down the street, my uncle sells watches; on the other side of town, my other aunt’s first floor houses her mechanic shop.

My friends use Facebook to sell products like shoes and makeup, using their Messenger inboxes and comment sections as order forms, shipping personally on their motorbikes.

It’s this Vietnamese network of vendors and buyers that Hair Etc. taps into. In

truth, it’s only one storefront of a massive market of Vietnamese goods here in the Triangle. We, too, communicate our wares through Facebook posts, and deliver to nail and hair salons. I am also complicit in the “Vietnamese black market”, rolling egg rolls to fund Nhân Ái Compassion’s next trip to Vietnam. It goes without saying that none of us go through “official” methods (though we obeyed strict sanitary guidelines when rolling the egg rolls, don’t worry!) to sell our goods.

But I would trust the food from Hair Etc.’s back room over the food from some restaurants, because I know the genre of care that was put into it. Like the egg rolls that my grandmother ships to us frozen from Boston (in tinfoil bundles that give the homeland security officers grief), the food traded in the Vietnamese commu-

nity is homecooked, and shared with the same love and care that the chefs reserve for their own families.

I will always appreciate Hair Etc., not only as our unofficial produce supplier, but also because for me, it is the center of the Vietnamese-American community in the Triangle. It symbolizes many aspects of our culture, like a commitment to sharing, selflessness to our neighbors – it even serves as a hub of information, spreading news about various members of the community over trims and perms. It showed me that even though other people who look like you may seem few and far between, culture and community can be found in the strangest of places.

See Sydney’s full capstone project at https://sydneysvietnam.weebly.com/.

2019-2020

NEWS

ISSUE 4

Pandemic shines new light on NC greenways

Claire Ferris for TC The sun sets over a bridge path in a North Carolina greenway.

During social distancing, hiking can be a calming activity. NC has plenty of greenways for that.

Claire Ferris Class of 2021

Despite having a myriad of ways in which we can communicate with each other without physical interaction -- FaceTime, Snapchat, and Zoom are enjoying colossal

success right now -- it seems easy to feel disconnected from the world. Though we can still talk to our friends and spam them with 8 ball on Game Pigeon, we no longer have the luxury of collectively lamenting the stress of our next math test while sitting cross-legged in the Upper School hallways, visibly exhausted. But interacting with anyone -- acquaintances and strangers alike -- is now forbidden, and I’ve found myself turning dai-

ly to Cary’s greenways and Umstead State Park to evoke a sense of connectedness to both the people around me and my home itself, Cary.

The Black Creek Greenway -- it’s nearest to my house -first started construction in 1989, and the town of Cary has adding segments ever since, with the most recent addition made in 2013. The town of Cary has exciting plans for the future of the trail, too: eventually, the Black Creek Greenway will be connected to the White Oak Greenway, which will connect to the American Tobacco Trail. Though the Greenway represents national interconnectedness as a part of the East Coast Greenway, a system that extends from Florida to Maine, the true beauty of the trail is how well it interlaces the fabric of the town of Cary. It connects to schools, parks, dog parks, boat houses, recreational areas, neighborhoods, stores -- and does so

largely clad in lush forest.

Despite not going at precisely the same time each day, I always feel like I pass the same people, my own greenway regulars, during my excursions through Cary. Perhaps they’re venturing out on their daily state-sanctioned walk, reluctantly spending their free time with their families and ecstatic pets. Perhaps they’re overjoyed at the prospect of finally, finally! leaving that Zoom call and escaping into their thoughts, delicately aided by their melodies of choice. Sometimes, though, those people are even fellow CA students reveling in the peace and entertainment that the greenways provide.

For Xavier DeSouza (‘21), “…being unsocially cooped up for a lengthy period of time… it has been exceedingly invaluable to go for runs, walks, and bikes on the Greenway and through Umstead Park. It has additionally been plausible

to perpetually remain at least six feet away from other pedestrians. A particular boon has been occasionally coming across familiar faces,” though he says that he “dutifully refrain[s] from drawing near.”

Sarah Zhao (‘22) also expressed her gratitude for the greenway system: “I’ve been using them a lot to walk my puppy every day and we like to take him to the hiking trails that surround Lake Crabtree.”

Despite our physical distance, we are as connected as ever, our own individual stretches of greenway acting as vessels of a larger system that indicates our individual hometowns live and breathe together, even when we feel so very far away from each other. If you ever start to miss the short gray carpet of the Upper School, put on your running shoes, find a greenway, and remember: we’re more connected than we think.

Shopping during the coronavirus: a story of surrealism In just weeks, every- clear marker of spring. And thing about shopping by any measure, this is the weirdest spring I or anyone has changed.

Cate Pitterle Class of 2020

I walked up to Trader Joe’s on a Thursday. It was the first time I’d been inside a store during the pandemic, and my mom and I slipped on our disposable masks-a priceless commoditiesity acquired from a friend of a friend--before getting out of the car. The hand sanitizer was ready to go upon our return; we’d given up on gloves.

Outside the entrance, bright orange tape marked six-feet intervals where shoppers could wait in line to enter. We took a spot at the end of the line, a couple of spots before the colorful arrow indicating the spot where we could expect a ten-minute wait. Along the line were plants (I was tempted--quarantine has seen me become an amateur at-home gardener) and blooming flowers, a

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else I know has encountered.

All around me, masked people shied out of the way to avoid getting close to others. Groups of relatives clung close to each other to take up as little space as possible. One shopper, lacking a mask, had tied a bright red bandana across his face. Below his aviator sunglasses, it made for quite the look-like James Bond had made his way to the Wild West.

But even with restrictions on the number of people in the store, well-marked areas for check-out lines and an abundance of caution, the aisles still crowded.

(The chocolate section was a particular hit, I noticed.)

Shoppers checking out still brushed by those moving around the aisles. And despite screens separating staff members, they still operated in tight quarters.

About the time we were checking out, it hit me. I was noticing space and

Cate Pitterle for TC At a Cary Trader Joe’s, shoppers are separated by tape, and workers operate behind screens.

movement in a way I never had before. When other people got too close to me, it set off alarm bells in my mind. Moving through a narrow aisle was dangerous in a way it never had been before. Things as simple as touching a box of food made me nervous.

In short, I can only describe my quick grocery trip as surreal. There are a lot of words that describe this otherwise gorgeous, sunny spring: weird,

nerve-wracking, isolated, stressful. But in the end, surreal seems to fit the most.

It’s been over ten weeks since we’ve been at school-more than one entire summer vacation. If we’ve seen our friends, it’s usually only been to grab a Goodberry’s ice cream, tan in the lawn, or take a hike through Umstead.

But if Trader Joe’s has taught me anything, it’s that the normal still persists. We still walk into a store

and gravitate toward our favorite foods. We still buy flowers for Mother’s Day or plants for the summer garden. Even though we might rush to lather on hand sanitizer now, this too will pass.

We’ll be able to hug our friends again. We’ll head back to school, whether it’s Cary Academy or college, and we’ll make all the memories we were supposed to these last few months.

And we’ll be able to enter a store without worrying.

2019-2020

OPINION

ISSUE 4

Opinion: Lockdown won’t hurt your college apps Everyone else is in the same boat, after all.

Mary Esposito Class of 2021

t’s the silent thought that has been looming in our heads since March… how is lockdown going to affect my getting into college??

There’s been a lot of anxiety surrounding what the college application process is going to look like for rising seniors, but the pandemic is truly affecting all high school students. Whether you were planning on taking a summer class, volunteering at a summer camp or anything else my parents would deem “resume-building,” you’ve most likely experienced drastic changes to your summer plans. I know I was planning on writing

a whole common app essay on my awesome 6-week backpacking trip to Europe, a trip that got canceled as soon as the EU closed its borders. Now I’m looking forward to a whole summer full of… nothing. Great.

Yeah I get it, transitioning to online class and having a canceled summer definitely sounds like bad news for your college application.

You can’t play sports, you can’t volunteer, and you definitely can’t travel. What are you supposed to write about? Waking up at noon to play video games and eating blueberry muffins with your mom at 2 am? All your serious ventures are put on pause, and you’re pretty uncomfortable with the silence.

The truth is, as high school students, we are so used to being on the move all day and every day. In fact, taking a break to chill makes us

wildly uncomfortable. We’ve grown up believing that productive=good and not productive=bad. We are going to get nothing accomplished in this lockdown period and are going to look like bums on our college applications because we get nothing done and haven’t yet found the cure for COVID-19.

Here’s a wild thought: lockdown is not gonna hurt your getting into college. So you need to stop worrying so much that you feel like you’re going to throw up.

Studies show that having down time is actually good for your mental health (surprise! not doing homework for 10 hours a day leads to a better quality of life!). You might not realize it now, but your mental state has a HUGE effect on your academics. Common symptoms of not taking care of your mental health include

stress, fatigue, and anxiety.

With a reduced workload and fewer school hours, you now have more time than ever to do activities you enjoy. Whether it’s painting, video games or cooking, doing things you love releases serotonin which makes you happy and, as a result, more motivated to do things that maybe aren’t as enjoyable, like assignments. So by enriching other aspects of your life that are important to you, you set yourself up for better student performance. Keep eating those 2 am blueberry muffins!

We’re all in this together. Colleges have said they understand the impact of COVID-19 on current high school students. Yale University assures future applicants that “your community’s response to the outbreak-- and your personal circumstances associated

with it-- will not negatively affect your admissions.”

Colleges have made it clear that COVID-19 will be taken into consideration when reviewing applicants, and therefore you do NOT need to worry about the impact of the pandemic on your admissions. Everyone is in the same boat.

From a member of the class of 2021, the grade most screwed over in terms of applying to college, you will be FINE. Use this time to breathe and self reflect.

You’ll actually find this introspection will provide you greater clarity to make more informed decisions about your education future. Try new things and you might surprise yourself with new interests and talents. Your college apps are looking brighter than ever. This isn’t the end of the world. If anything, it’s the beginning.

Opinion: Why everyone needs a pet (and how to do it) Pet owners are happier and healthier.

Let’s get a pet in every home.

Loren Troan Class of 2020

According to the 2017 American Housing Survey, 49% of American households have pets. Now, I know what you’re thinking – that few? And it is a terrible reality. The Independent found that pet owners were more likely to be happy, healthy, and married, and overall more productive members of society. This discovery leads me to a natural inquiry: how can we increase the number of pet owners?

First, it is vital to choose the right pet for the right person. Not everyone is (strangely enough) a cat person, and for some reason hidden to me, some prefer dogs. So, what are some differences between the owners? First, dog owners tend to be more outgoing, agreeable, and self-disciplined, while cat owners tend towards curiosity and

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adventure. The differences extend into the lifestyles of the owners: dog owners are more likely to be married and live in a house, cat owners more likely to live alone and to have grown up with a cat. Using these indicators (and probably some individual input), the process of pairing animals and people shouldn’t be challenging.

Next, are there even enough pets to be distributed? Well, if about half of households already have a pet, and there are 128 million households, then 64 million pets would be needed. Unfortunately, there just aren’t that many available pets in the country of any type, with the possible exception of giving each household a fish.

The best option is then to determine a long-term strategy that would slowly increase the number of pets. This could best be done by subsidizing breeders and discouraging owners from having their furry friends spayed or neutered.

We then come upon the problem of distribution. By implementing the above

Photo from Wake County SPCA Pets can be a great addition to any home. Try adopting an animal in need from a local shelter.

solutions, we would have an ever-increasing number of animals distributed across the country. Here, I propose a government agency in charge of connecting potential owners to breeders or those with too many pets. It would serve to supplement the already existing online and informal networks that serve this purpose and would be able to help provide more accurate statistics for combatting the crisis.

Last, but certainly not least, there is the issue of

cost. Simply put, pets can be expensive: up to $12,200 for dogs and $18,200 for cats.

The best solution here pulls from the world of politics: universal healthcare. Numerous Democratic have proposed in-depth solutions for people, and it would be quick to adapt them onto pets. This transition would allow more people than ever before to own pets, as it would help reduce the potential worries about financial damages. I can’t predict how much the program

would cost on a national level, but some universal covage plans have cost very little in humans (or even been revenue-positive!), and their costs would go way down when reducing the price of labor, medication, and deflating the prices.

These are not drastic measures, but ones out of a desire for increased national happiness and health. America has many issues, but with a few simple steps, low pet ownership is one that can be solved.

2019-2020

BACK COVER

ISSUE 4

Quiz: What building on campus are you most like?

1. During Club and Community time you...

A. Fill your time with every possible club and spend community time worrying about if you need to add another club or extracurricular

B. Hang out with friends and possibly come in late to G block

C. Spikeball obviously

D. Catch up on homework at a table with friends

E. Rehearse for an upcoming performance in Berger Hall

2. You finish your lunch early, what do you do next?

A. Go to the library to study for your test next block

B. Make Tik Toks in the bathroom with your friends

C. Play four square on the quad

D. Stay at your table and talk with friends

E. Check out the new art exhibit put up around Berger Hall

3. After school ends you...

A. Go straight home to study

B. Hang out with friends until campus closes

C. Go to sports practice

D. Go home but spend a good amount of time playing Madden.

E. Go to singing, acting, instrument, or dance lessons

4. During Teams meetings with your class, you can usually be seen...

A. What else would you be doing but paying attention to the teacher?!

B. Trying to hide your phone as you text your friends

C. Getting in your reps for your ab workout of the day

D. Eating lunch and trying to entertain a younger sibling

E. Simultaneously doing your Spanish project and English essay

5. If you don't know the answers to two questions on a ten question test you...

A. Cry until you realize that your tears are covering the answers that are actually right

B. Think "oh well, at least I'll finish the quiz earlier so I can hang out with my friends!"

C. Talk to the teacher afterward about how you haven't had time to study because of all your baseball games

D. Know that there will be more quizzes and retake opportunities

E. Write a paragraph about why 'b' could be the correct answer but 'd' also has potential if we're living in a multiverse

6. At GSD, you can be found...

A. Arriving late because you felt guilty about not finishing all weekend homework on Friday night

B. In the middle of the dance circle

C. Not there because you're in Atlanta for soccer

D. Hanging out with your friends and teachers on the 2nd floor

E. Taking pictures at the photo booth

7. You oversleep and your ETA at school is 8:25. You...

A. Drive while concocting what the theme of your apology essay will be for your A block teacher

B. Call your best friend to make sure she let the teacher knowmight as well pick up Chick-Fil-A on the way!

C. Take time to make sure you eat breakfast before leaving

D. Apologize profusely to Ms. Sengelmann and sprint to class

E. Use the morning drive to rehearse your chorus audition

8. The thing you miss most about going to the physical school is...

A. The one-on-one time with teachers

B. Seeing your friends every day

C. Spring sports

D. The face-to-face collaboration and the routine of school

E. Third trimester excitement and seeing events If you got mostly A’s...

You’re the library! You are always working to improve yourself and you like your isolation and quiet. You budget your time well and understand the importance of keeping up with schoolwork.

If you got mostly B’s...

You’re the CMS! You’re a social butterfly and never miss a chance to spend time with friends.

If you got mostly C’s...

You’re the FC! You always are able to fill your time with athletic activities and sports keep you busy outside of schoolwork.

If you got mostly D’s...

You’re the Upper School! You usually budget your time well and enjoy a balance of solitude and time with friends.

If you got mostly E's...

You're Berger Hall! You are multitalented and creative. You are always willing to lend a helping hand and you believe the sky is the limit.

Poem: thoughts from quarantine part II Addie Esposito Class of 2020

who knew that so many chipmunk cherubs with chubby cheeks call my garden home that sipping a myriad of teas throughout the day would set me at ease—raspberry, please that sleeping in a hammock under moonlight and tree branches is a recipe for restlessness that tranquil strolls at twilight with my mama would populate my old homework time months ago, I’d be type-typing away, but now I catch the scent of blooming magnolias now I notice passing houses—Dutch Colonial architecture? it looks like a glorified barn! a tea + architecture connoisseur with penchants for honey, bergamot, white brick, gas lanterns

who knew that my inaugural drive in my dad’s beloved Jeep would ignite such delight just us two on sunny morning jaunts, windows down, rolling down to quaint coffee shops caramel, cream, caffeine—the glorious trifecta, elixir for peppy thoughts, food for poetry all this idle time has been nutritious for my brain, my thoughts, my psyche, my life even remedial after years of go-go-go, constant stimulation, obligatory foci for all my energy now I rest on the porch in soft pj pants with unbrushed hair, cupping a mug in my palms watching the baby red maple sway in the morning breeze, oblivious to the date and time

who knew that, in the midst of tragic crises, there’d be oases of cathartic rejuvenation healing hiatuses from mechanical routine, on-demand living, academic angst, trivial haste gold linings of refreshing rest, clock ticks traded for organic impulses and rhythms I’m ceding to moderation, existing holistically, stopping to enjoy the blossoming roses savoring sylvan sunset strolls, sipping steaming sanguinitea, selecting scarlet strawberries there’s enticing infinity in my vicinity, a plethora of untapped joys, many things to ponder thoughts from quarantine abound—my writing hand struggles to keep up with my mind!

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