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To Go Through Hell and Resurface
By Isabella Cruz-Nascimento, V Form
To Go Through Hell and Resurface
Crazy, insane, bipolar, OCD–all terms that have worked their way into colloquial language. Most people use them to describe themselves; “Oh my God, I am so OCD, I can’t handle messy rooms” is a sentence that could be heard regularly among teenagers. However, swap in a teen that genuinely displays compulsive behavior and the declarations turn into murmurs of, “What’s wrong with her?” “She needs to calm down,” “They need to medicate her already”. Mental illness is inconsequential and intriguing, until one sees its effects in person. In a community like St. Mark’s, being diagnosed with a mental illness can be onerous, not only because of the rigorous environment, but also because of the burden of the connotations that come with having a diagnosis. In an environment that demands perfection, I sometimes feel branded as incapable of success because of my diagnosis. For the majority of the past two years I have kept my dishonorable secret closely guarded. I refuse to do that now. (more…)
Festina Lente: Reflections on Teaching and Gardening
By Heather Harwood, Classics Faculty
Festina Lente: Reflections on Teaching and Gardening
This past spring and summer, I was once again actively involved in the St. Mark’s Community Garden Project. With the help of five students last spring and with the committed labor of several St. Mark’s faculty during the summer, the garden continued to expand and flourish into its fourth season. It provided all of us who participated with an abundance of delicious and nutritious food and was a quiet, reflective refuge where I could escape any given sunny morning to harvest my thoughts about the past school year and think about the upcoming one. (more…)
Like a Rock Star
By Charlie Sellers, Head of the Modern Languages Department
Like a Rock Star
I had a very busy summer vacation. It was also a phenomenal summer full of adventure and self-
discovery. A day after finishing my end of the year duties at St. Mark’s –advisee letters, grades, comments, and faculty meetings– I left for China with 10 St. Markers and our former Chinese teacher, Showjean Wu. After two weeks in Beijing at our partner school, I was back in the States. My wife and I were moving from the house across from the thirds’ soccer field to a bigger house at the end of the thirds’ soccer field, and I needed to pack. My wife, Michaela, was busy finishing up classes and end of the year events –she teaches 5th grade at a public school in Sharon, Massachusetts– and we had another big adventure planned for the day after she finished classes. We were about to embark on an 800-kilometer (about 500-miles, a little longer than the distance from (more…)
The Dalai Lama: A Spiritual Leader Above a Political One
By Lucy Cao, V Form
The Dalai Lama: A Spiritual Leader Above a Political One
China and Tibet have a long history of relations. Beginning with the Manchu rule of Tibet, conflicts and disputes between the Chinese and Tibetans have persisted. Unwilling to compromise with a centralized ruler, Tibet seized the opportunity to claim itself as an independent state after the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. However, following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Tibet became an integral part of China. From then on, numerous riots and uprisings for Tibetan independence and the preservation of Tibetan traditional culture and religion have taken place (Goldstein 84-86).
One aspect of the complex relationship between China and Tibet has some connection with the Dalai Lama selection process. As a tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Finding the reincarnation of the Dalai (more…)
I Am a Spirit on a Human Journey
By Both Long, Spanish Faculty
I Am a Spirit on a Human Journey
“There is no path to happiness, happiness is the path”–Buddha
As a kid, I was raised under the Buddhist way of life by my mom and grandma. I was taught the principles of Buddhism through lessons and teaching; I lived the Buddhist way of life by following my family. I walked this life and always identified as a practicing Buddhist, but I never really studied what that actually meant. I never consciously thought of what it means to be someone with Buddhist values. I am a Buddhist. I am here to learn the teachings of the Buddhist way through my own experience in this human form. (more…)
Against Birthday Celebrations
By Candice Wang, VI Form
Against Birthday Celebrations
Modern individualism has fathered many cultural phenomena. As the increase in society’s productivity promotes the quality of life, unnecessary personal luxuries have become an unquestioned part of contemporary life. Among these extravagances, birthday celebrations are the most ludicrous.
Contrary to popular belief, an individual deserves no merit for his or her existence. From the moment of conception to the last breath on the deathbed, a person’s life is a pure gift, and occasionally an accidental byproduct, from actions of other people. A baby exerts little effort in its birth; it is rather a miraculous feat on the part of its mother. As humans grow up, the sun shines, the Earth turns, and the plants perform photosynthesis to keep the them alive. The family and the society are responsible for feeding education to assimilate a new person into the cultural construct. Individual personhood is no more than a reaction to the course of nature combined with environmental circumstances. In the (more…)
Confession of My (Our) Ignorance: A Chapel Talk
By Julie Geng, VI Form
Confession of My (Our) Ignorance: A Chapel Talk
If there is one thing that I improved significantly over my senior year, it must be procrastination. When I received the chapel talk invitation from Rev. Talcott over the summer, I immediately signed up, and I picked sometime in April. I had the delusion that senior spring would give me more time to carry out some soul-searching. Uh, no.
I chose the date April the 7th to procrastinate, and I thought it was a brilliant idea, really. I could not imagine how my courageous classmates managed to craft amazingly inspiring chapel speeches during the college process. Again, I was wrong. Many topics that I wanted to talk about have already been extensively and successfully touched upon. I wanted to talk about my experience in a chemistry lab, but it would not be nearly as exciting as Liz Swain’s baby-delivering internship. I wanted to talk about my Chinese names (yes, there are two of them), but mine are not nearly as interesting as Winnie Yan’s “little buddha.” I wanted to talk about mindful eating and mental illness, but my words and story would not be nearly as compelling and powerful as Matt Flather’s or Jess Hutchinson’s. (more…)
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