F Block (Laura)

"I feel like I'll probably never regret trying to get into relationships. Even if it ended up bad in the end, I feel like they taught me lots of things, like patience. They taught me patience by getting on my nerves, like refusing when I wanted to go out. They also taught me how to be my own person and to not always be so dependent on them all the time. Sometimes I would get anxiously attached for some reason and they were like,”Hey, can you leave me alone?“ I think that really showed me how to be independent. I learned how to open up and connect with people on an emotional level, and also who the right people to open up to are, and who to trust with my feelings. I feel like the more that I grow, the more I figure out how to share myself with people and express how I'm feeling. In a way, my past relationships were outlets for figuring that out."

"I was adopted at 15 months during that time period and It was during the one child policy in China. So when I was really young, my parents put me into Mandarin lessons to help me connect. My parents are both Western and do not speak any other languages, besides English. It was very hard for me to learn Mandarin because I did not have any extra support and I was not doing it daily. When I got older, I continued my Mandarin lessons until I was about 9. So it became a bigger disconnect and it was a reminder that I was not exactly like my parents and that I was not exactly Chinese. At the age of 9, I finally quit Mandarin; I remember my dad and I had a huge fight about me not continuing. He said, you will regret this when you're older ,and this is a connection for you. I thought, I'm not gonna regret it. I don't like learning this language. That moment of me being like, I'm not gonna regret it, is a moment that I still remember and is something that is still true for me. I don't regret stopping Mandarin, I do regret not trying harder to connect with it. That's something as I grow older that I will try to connect with this part of my identity."

"It's very hard to ask people to trust you or to stand with you in uncertain moments, so the biggest struggle for me right now is helping them stay positive while I, too, try to stay positive. The 600-plus kids on this campus, that helps me when I see y'all, I see you smiling, hear the conversations where people are talking about remaining here. That gives me hope. When I talk to some of the teachers and staff, their love for this place gives me hope. I just received a video where four students are talking about the love they have for their school, and how they want to share their love, and how this community made them better people. That helps me in the midst of it all. I love that you can walk into my office and you feel comfortable to come in and sit and have a snack, or that you're able to have conversations with the head of school. They are not unreachable. They're not untouchable. That your voice matters. That when my daughter decided she needed to help the community and open a peace garden, her teacher heard her and made it happen. You know where else is that gonna happen? The community's love for this place and the fact that y’all can be exactly who you are and unapologetically about it, that I love."

"When I was around 10-11 years old, I left my home country of Iran to attend a Scottish all-boys boarding school because my father told me that I would have a better education there. The experience there was horrible; I had to get up extremely early in the morning, could only take cold showers, the teachers had no passion for teaching, the dorms were crammed, and the meals were disgusting. Living at this school felt like living in boot camp because of the strictness here. I could barely speak any English, and on top of this, I was constantly bullied because of how different I was from everybody else. Transitioning to this environment was so challenging because I was used to getting pampered by my parents, so I had to figure out how to be self-dependent here in this demanding place. The style of teaching at that school was not for me, and because of that, I was a poor student. Fortunately, over time, as I got older, I started getting more comfortable in the boarding school, I stopped getting bullied, and started doing better in school, so I was able to graduate. And look at me now, I am the James Bond of learning specialists."

"Originally, I heard about the school from a friend. I do believe in the partnership of a student and a teacher, rather than what's usually the norm, in public schools. So that drew me here. I grew up in the complete opposite. That's what the striking difference for me was. There, it's an authority, they don't ask you questions. It's very 'The teacher is here. The student is here.’ I mean, I'm not saying I didn't have good teachers, but there's a very strong line. From what I know, teachers here tend to share stuff about their personal life . I don't remember my teachers ever sharing something from their personal life. Seeing you guys, especially if I see you for more years, I remember how you started, or how you behaved and how you grew over the years. I mean. And then I love the kindness, the little things that you guys do... like holding the door for each other or helping each other when somebody is struggling. I really find joy in that. I love it!"

"In about sixth grade, I was walking my dog with my dad. I saw that one of my neighbors, his mom, was standing outside. This was the mom of a guy called Logan. He was known for having this huge crush on this girl named Charlotte. Logan’s mom went up to us and said, “Did you hear the news about Charlotte?” It was in a frantic tone. It was clear that something bad happened. My brain went to “What is the worst thing that I could think of?” My first thought was, “Her dog died.” Then she said that Charlotte died, and that was the most surprising thing that’s ever happened to me. It didn’t feel real. A lot of people think that you can prepare for this kind of stuff, but the reality is, you can’t. She had died in her sleep. No one knew what happened to her. That was the end of the story. Grief is a funny thing. I think it’s scary. It’s so scary. For the longest time I went to sleep, not knowing whether or not I would wake up. I haven’t known what to do with the sort of grief that I felt and how it influenced my own process of death. Things happen. Things change, and you’ve just kind of got to live through it. It’s not easy, but there isn’t really any other way."