D Block (Ayesha)

"One of my favorite ways to find peace at Sandy Spring is walking in the woods. Knowing that the woods were a part of the underground railroad makes me feel like when I walk through those woods, I have good spirits around me. Another is Meeting for Worship. The time to be silent, the time to be a little bit more reflective and sit with my thoughts. That allows me to process things, and also be a little bit more peaceful. The dorm community, all of the students who live in the dorm as well. I just think about all these amazing people in the community of the folks who live on the campus. We really watch out for each other. Adults and students alike. That gives me a level of peace because I know that when I am living here, all of the people that also live here are invested in making sure we’re all happy, peaceful, and safe. The peace reflects in how I teach because it allows me to be slower. Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. It allows me to be more gracious with myself when I make mistakes. It allows me to be well, and when you are well, you are better equipped to help other people be well. When my students are not feeling too peaceful, I have an ear to listen and a brain to respond."

"I was three in November 2012, and my mom signed me up for I&I Sports basketball. I hated it, but after a few months I warmed up to it and was playing everyday during elementary school. Then during COVID, I stopped playing basketball. I started playing again before sixth grade. School came back and I signed up for the school basketball team. I made the A Team only because I was vaccinated . Next year I made the B team; that was the first year when they had three teams. I was disappointed. In the third year I felt an improvement, but I still made the B team. It was between me and this other kid for the last A team spot. I was upset the rest of that week. Looking back, it’s stupid, 'cause it's just a middle school team. But I decided to ball out on the B team. Then this past year I had some ups and downs to the start of the season. I was playing okay, then I got to a point around January when I was playing terribly, and then by the start of February I finished up the season strong. I'm not a crazy talent but I'm decent you know, and it all circles back to that first time when I didn't want to play basketball and my mom forced me to sign up and she didn't let me quit. It's still a huge part of my life."

"I think that the people that got me to where I am now are my educators, specifically at SSFS. People I feel like have been beneficial to I think my success now. When I mean how proud I am now is because of SSFS. I think the one true thing about getting to where I am now, I am kind of happy? Mentally, successfully, academically and socially just happy and I think that’s because of SSFS’s educators. Eduardo for Quiz Bowl and Spanish, but also just teaching values about what it means to be a human. It can be a little erratic in quiz bowl and I think that’s actually kind of applied with that constant grace that he’s given me. Scott, I feel like he’s been there for me in the speech realm, in the life realm and in the SSFS realm, and y'know I credit my success for speech because of him, and I credit him for making me set myself on the right track, helping me guide my way through what are my passions versus what type of human. Mark, he introduced me to stoicism, branch of philosophy about virtue. Learning that from him has been really effective, which he’s taught me with that, with stoicism, with philosophy which has contributed to my academics. Eduardo trying to teach me to be a better human and then Scott trying to help me thrive. It’s been really helpful to get me to where I am today."

“I wish people knew that I notice a lot. I like to observe people’s tendencies and if my friend tells me they have a favorite flower I like- I’ll remember that. I can give it to them on special occasions. Or, on their birthdays, I like to remember things they told me that they wanted.I remember a lot of stuff. Like, it’s really hard for me to forget stuff. Every awkward interaction with people, I remember that. My friend ordered a pizza the other day and she went to wash out her hair dye and the uber driver came over and I had to get it for her but I had an awkward interaction with the pizza delivery guy and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. it. In the moment, it feels like awkward moments and for a little bit- they feel horrible. Like, I can’t forget them and I just kinda cringe at the thought of them. But, then, after a while they seem really insignificant which I think, like, it’s nice. The awkward interactions I’ve had a long time ago, I remember just like dying on the spot because it was so awkward but, now I don’t really care about them.”

"When I was a grad student at University of Maryland, after 9/11, a lot of people were talking about how like you had to be very careful if you were Muslim. Even my mom was like, you know, "are you sure that you want to be openly Muslim?" And I remember vividly doing this, that Friday after 9/11 - so 4 days later - I went to campus wearing the long Muslim dress (abaya) in dark blue, a white hijab, and a red armband, because I felt really strongly that I wanted to present as an American Muslim. I wanted to show very clearly that both those parts of my identity were important to me. And honestly that's kinda of why I'm here at Sandy Spring Friends School, because I think that America is meant to be a place where everyone can be who they are, and everyone is safe being who they are at Sandy Springs Friends School. America is a mix of so many different cultures and identities, and that's what makes it what it is. Your experience in America is going to be different from other people depending on who they are, and all of that is part of what it means to be American."

"My grandma played a big role in who I am today because when I was younger she always told me stories about her experience of coming to America. She came from Guyana when she was younger, then she moved to go to college to get her nursing degree in England and then came to New York when she met my grandfather. One of my favorite memories of my grandma is every year I go to New York and spend a week with her, and I always see how kind she is and how she helps others from the kindness of her heart, not like wanting anything in exchange but because she wants to. I think that that definitely is a big part of who I am, because I always strive to be like her and always be kind. She has a garden in the back of her house, and like, there's these old ladies that like to walk around, and she allows them to go in her garden and sit by the pond. She makes everybody food, and she likes to plant a whole bunch of flowers for her community, and she always strives to make the world better, even if it's something small, and always tries to help others."

"Joining Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts at the time, I made lots of friends through that. When I got up to Boy Scouts, which happens in middle school, I went on all sorts of cool trips, like Seabed, which was where I canoed out to an island and camped there for a couple days. We had to ration water. I've also learned how to not get hurt. And it has increased my pain tolerance. I know CPR, the Heimlich maneuver, stuff like that. I'm actually still friends with a lot of the Boy Scouts; some of them have left the troop, but I'm in a book club with a lot of them. In the summer of 2026, I'm going to a ranch that the Boy Scouts own called Filmont. I’m going to be backpacking a lot, riding horses, and shooting guns. When I become an Eagle Scout, which I am on my way to, it will help me get into better colleges, and I will put that on my resume. Once I was at a summer camp called Goshen, and was messing around with fire and hand sanitizer. I was wearing Crocs at the time and an adult was coming over. The hand sanitizer was on the ground and on fire, so I decided, “Hey it's a small fire, don't blow on it and i'll stomp on it.” The thing about hand sanitizer is that it's liquid when I stomped on it, it went flying, and my Croc got set on fire."

"I got introduced to soccer when I was about three by my dad. I started at Tacoma Park soccer, then I joined my MSI Selects team for eight years, and I developed my skill and love for the game a lot. That has brought up my gameplay and new people in my life. My team from outside of school won our first tournament when I was 13 as a result of my new skill. When school isn’t going so good, I'd just go outside and play soccer to help me recover. I plan to play until I get a college opportunity or just to finish out high school. I got communication skills, my athleticism, and my fitness from soccer. I also made new friends. I've been injured before, and you can't play for a while. And then when you come back, you're all happy. But if I couldn't play again, then I would be happy I got to do this great sport for a long time. If I could, I would play soccer for the rest of my life. Soccer is a big part of my life."

"I wasn't born on a farm. Well, I did grow up on a tree farm. There were trees everywhere, and I would walk outside and there would be a tree, and it was really nice because I could climb trees whenever I wanted. But when it got winter, a couple times I would be walking around and there would be holes where the trees would have been dug up, and one time I fell in one, and it was really scary because I was drowning in a hole of ice. But now since I live on a animal farm, I wake up in the morning, I take care of my animals, I hang out with them. I help raise baby sheep now, and it's pretty nice. I have like thirty-two animals; people are like, wow, that's pretty cool, and I'll be like, yeah. I have two big dogs, and my dogs are a little bit intimidating, but they're really sweet. I also have a bunch of chickens, and so I can give eggs to my friends whenever they ask for eggs. We have a bunch of different kinds of eggs, we have blue eggs and some greens, and it's a cool variety, but I don't know whether or not people want a variety eggs. We probably don’t have enough chickens to consistently sell eggs and to eat in the morning."

“Staying home in Connecticut for college was not my goal. I definitely wanted to get out of Connecticut. You know, I think I was accepted into like, nine colleges. They were all out of state. And the only reason I ended up staying was because of the music. You know, we were trying to get signed by a major record label and came like this close. So it made sense to stay home, you know, in Connecticut at the time. And I think it impacted my life even until today, because one, you know, unfortunately, I went to a predominantly White Institution and experienced a lot of racism, which I think really kind of molded me into who I am today, kind of pushed me into teaching history, because I started to learn more about myself as a black person. And even ending up at Sandy Spring, because of Adrienne in Scott House. We went to college together, so that's how I ended up here. So if it wasn't for that connection, I may have never been here. And I had the opportunity to teach two of their boys, and 'cause the father went to school with me as well, so that was a great opportunity for me as well to be able to teach Dallas and Cyrus along the way.”