The past trimester, the fall of my senior year, has been perhaps the busiest few months of my life. There has been classes, prefectship, sports, and all other aspects of Thacher. Not to mention, I’m a senior! Which means college apps and my senior exhibition are always on my mind.

So yes, it’s been busy, but I really wouldn’t change a thing. Like most Thacher kids, I’m happy when I’m busy. Although AP Spanish and Calculus may have pushed me to the breaking point, and I may have bit off more than I was expecting to chew in the trimester elective Modern Mexico, it’s those challenges, and those moments of self-doubt inevitably followed by either the satisfaction of success or character-building failures, that make a Thacher experience so valuable. When I first heard our headmaster speak about “carefully calibrated challenges” as a seventh grader (on the first day of my sister’s freshman year), I dismissed the concept with a roll of my eyes. It took me until my camping trip this fall to realize the truth in that statement – I have grown here because it hasn’t been easy.

However, in between times of academic or college or leadership despair, there have been more than enough good times with my class and other students to make it all worth it twice over. With my sophomore prefectees, I’ve come to know and admire so many girls who I’d hardly spoken to last year, and I’ve seen myself become more and more comfortable in the leadership position. Getting the opportunity to co-captain the varsity tennis team has been amazing – I’m so proud of how our team was able to combine a very competitive and successful season with having an extremely fun, supportive, and positive team dynamic, a satisfying balance that is characteristic of Thacher sports in general.

This fall has also been filled with many moments of extreme senior love and bonding. From the all-school games on the first night of school during which we all sported matching “senior” tanks to our class beach trip to our flashmob performance of Gangnam Style in the dining hall, the knowledge that we only have a few more months together shows in everything we do. Hiking up to the observatory for a sunset dinner with all of the senior girls, celebrating a friend’s birthday with sushi in town (see picture), having meditation sessions, dance parties, and ping-pong tournaments during wandering, eating homemade empenadas, fried plantains, and Martinelli’s in a dorm common room… this week all 69 of us are cooking a Thanksgiving dinner to eat together!

And now, after this last week, onto Thanksgiving break and winter trimester! The two weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas break are some of the most hectic but energetic and happy weeks of the school year. I can’t wait for the cool weather, soccer season, a new elective (British and American Sea Literature… an interdisciplinary trimester course taught by a visiting scholar with a hands-on sailing component!), and the continuation of all the things that have thus far made my senior year unforgettable.