At assembly today, Owen, the newly elected School Chair, implored us to stop focusing on how fast time is going by as the year comes to an end, and to instead focus on the moments we have left. A glass half full approach to the melancholy laced sprint we face every spring. He said that […]
Yesterday, a student who I advised two years ago came in to tell me that she had decided to accept the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship from the University of North Carolina – a program widely known as the “baby Rhodes.” While I wasn’t at Thacher when she applied here, I got to know her pretty quickly […]
For me, the school year started in a frenzy of travel. In a matter of days I went from sleeping under the Sierra stars to the middle of mid-town Manhattan, from dusty trails to airport runways. It started to feel a bit too much like that movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” as I collected mile […]
Starbucks??? Three of my advisees (all senior girls) said hopefully and excitedly after formal dinner the other night. Please???? They’d determined it was too cold for ice cream, so if I was willing to take them somewhere…. And honestly I’ve never been more glad to load my car full of teenage girls and head out […]
This spring break I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Rwanda, a tiny country in east Africa with a devastating history of genocide that belies its peaceful rolling hills and gentle people. I traveled with a group of women who helped start a girls’ school in one of the areas most hard hit by […]
Okay, I admit it. I’m becoming a little self conscious about the fact that the great majority of my posts reference my homeland on the east coast, and my growing affection for life in the west. So really, this won’t be another. But I have to say, as I endure yet another Ojai winter (cue […]
Being a sophomore is great. Seriously, it’s the best. The excitement of being new hasn’t worn off yet, but I know where everything (well, most things) is and I’m nearly fluent in Thacher-speak. When someone tells me they came back from their EDT early to take the ACT before heading off to rehearsal at the […]
The first time someone suggested I get a headlamp I laughed in her face. Seeing how I don’t spend my days mining for coal or performing surgery, it seemed like a pretty silly idea. And worse, I would look ridiculous in one. That counted for something. Okay, that counted for a lot! But somewhere between […]
Kids need three things: to be known, to be loved, and to be held to a high standard. This is the message Mr. Mulligan often shares with families visiting Thacher for the first (or second, or third) time. His wisdom is offered as an example of how our school understands teenagers and what they need […]
They say that sense is a powerful tool in evoking memory – you smell your grandmother’s perfume and are immediately transported back to age 8. You taste a fresh strawberry and think of summer. As someone new to Ojai, and somewhat prone to melodrama, I’ve been thinking recently about the sights, sounds and smells that […]