From the Editor’s Desk: Woodstock Origin Stories

Katie Jo Walter, Editor

Dear Woodstock Alumni Community,

The Woodstock experience is what all students and staff – current, past, and present – have in common. For nearly one year now I’ve had the privilege and honour of learning about your experiences while also forging my own relationship with Woodstock’s worldwide family. Woodstockers are an extraordinary community of self-aware, service-oriented individuals with not only a penchant for recognizing value and potential in themselves and diverse others but also the drive to maximize that value and potential through challenging work, mentorship, and service.

You knowing me: A helping hand

I’ve experienced this in the welcome received since first arriving at Woodstock in mid-February 2022, sharing my newcomer’s determination, enthusiasm, and ideas for Woodstock’s Advancement and Alumni Office. I immediately got involved in the new strategic plan shared in this issue of the Quadrangle (see page 56). Monica Roberts, Ady Manral, Will Ferguson, and Aastha Bhakhri immediately started offering me foundational knowledge, history, connections, and advice – what has worked well before and what hasn’t. David and Connie Wheeler at Friends of Woodstock School shared these same things from their own perspectives.

Woodstockers from across eras, cultures, roles, and relationships with the school have been incredibly generous with their time and advice. This has included all the former Woodstock School Development Directors, along with numerous alumni and current and former staff and board members.

Several of you have taken the time to share your optimism regarding my ability to benefit the school and its community, taking positive note of my fortuitously diverse background that includes cross-cultural volunteering, research, and instruction in India (including language study in Landour) as well as International Alumni roles at the University of Oregon. I hope to do you proud!

Many Woodstockers have hosted me in their homes and shared their own stories and reflections made years later. Others have shared their concerns for the school as we work through the aftermath of two years of disruption due to the pandemic. All along the way, the spirit of mentorship and support has been the most solid I have ever experienced. You want to see me succeed, both as a champion for the future of Woodstock and as an individual. This inherent drive to serve and mentor is one of the many qualities that make you truly special, and I’ll be forever grateful to you as I continue in this role, hopefully for many, many years to come. I see myself as a servant of our school and its worldwide family as well as a steward of Woodstock’s legacy – your legacy. I want you to know that, like you, I’m always available to serve and mentor our community. And like you I’m always ready to learn and grow. Please let me know if anything from our office comes across as either short-sighted or an oversight, knowing that such inevitable occurrences are never intentional.

Me knowing you: origin stories

In seeking to better know those of you in the Woodstock family, I’ve found the concept of the origin story extremely useful. In comic books and other entertainment, an origin story is broadly defined as a backstory or background narrative that informs the identity and motivations of a particular character. This concept includes room for the varied cultures and experiences – with all their heroes, villains, and other players – that have moulded who you are.

Your life, learning, and work at Woodstock were sometimes undertaken with extraordinary joy and sometimes with great difficulty. Some of the most powerful and memorable of your emotions were likely experienced in silent conversation with the environment. Woodstock’s Himalayan surroundings sometimes inspired wonder, excitement, and frivolity, while at other times they offered solace and the opportunity to reflect. Sometimes they simply bore witness to powerful and difficult emotions like anger and utter loneliness.

There are also the teachers, dorm parents, and role models who guided and inspired you and kept you on the right track, sometimes with solemnity and sternness and sometimes with humour. They taught you, helped you discover your strengths and weaknesses, and coached you in developing your talents. They pushed you to do things you didn’t feel inclined or ready to do; some things you grew to appreciate, some things you happily left behind, and some things you may struggle with even today. Sometimes these elder figures were painfully boring or hurtfully overbearing or unintentionally funny. Many times they modelled compassion and caring and stood by your side through tough times.

They were parents, confidantes, and champions for you. They, too, left their imprints and influences.

Your schoolmates were there, too. Those who lived alongside you and went through struggles and joys that connected with your own in endlessly interesting ways. Those with whom you shared secrets and hatched schemes. Those with whom you traded or fought over things not so easily found on the hillside. Their circumstances could range from refugee to royalty. They were your family even though they came from so many different places and mindsets and communities.

Your neighbours from the hillside community were there as well. Working on campus and living nearby. They welcomed you into their shops and homes. They hauled your things, sewed your clothing, and prepared your food. They helped you repeatedly in all kinds of situations, had a watchful eye out for your safety, and offered friendliness and goodwill.

Chapels, Activity Weeks, and sporting and other events unfolded throughout the course of each year. These occasions offered opportunities for spiritual exploration, creativity, socializing, and finding quiet corners for confessions and scandal. Related to these events and in other ways, too, the campus played its own role. The maze of spaces. Parker Hall. The Quad. The Tea Garden. Hanson Field.

Quadrangle: A legacy highlighting our community of lifelong learners’ vital connections and roles in Woodstock’s past, present, and future

No matter what distinct patchwork of cultures, eras, and other influences form who you are, you have this wide variety of experiences in common with every other Woodstocker. Having this shared experience, you can and do instantly connect with each other, even when meeting vastly different alumni for the first time. You’ve emerged on the other side of Woodstock as an alum with an incredible origin story and an incredible life that continues to unfold beyond your time here.

I view the Quadrangle as a unique opportunity for sharing and learning that celebrates this common origin story among Woodstockers along with the amazing variety of lived experience that can follow it. It’s also a space to share Woodstock’s role in the lives of its current students and most recent alumni. Many things change, but many things do indeed remain the same. In this edition of the Quadrangle, you’ll see that several alumni are coming to campus, getting directly involved to experience this for themselves and connecting meaningfully with those of us currently on the hillside. I encourage you to do the same when and if you can. I know many of you have gone in and out of periods of engagement with the school, and we here on the hillside know that life is full of twists and turns and changing perspectives. We want you to know you’re always welcome to re-engage in any way that may appeal to you.

The school, too, has gone through a variety of phases as it has continued its striving. As much as Woodstock has always been very accepting of many kinds of diversity, the Woodstock School and the students of today have been observed as more welcoming and accepting than any previous generation; I’ve loved hearing from alumni on campus and at events who have remarked positively about this.

You continue to play a vital role in the Woodstock of today. My hope is that this issue of the Quadrangle highlights that, connecting you in some way to each of the vital pieces of your Woodstock origin story I mentioned here and more while eliciting pride and optimism for who we continue to be here at Woodstock. Thank you again for your involvement and care! Stay in touch, and Palma Non Sine Pulvere.

Warmly,

Katie Jo