Community Writing Project - Best of Week 7

Every Monday, for the past seven weeks, our Writing Department has invited the Waring community to participate in a communal writing project.

Each week, the Writing Department shared a new prompt and published some of the previous week’s best responses.

The resulting community-made journal is a powerful record of our time during remote learning and physical distancing.

The Writing Department encouraged us to write about family, food, binge-worthy television, books, what we miss, silver linings, and in the final prompt, we were offered a chance to write a blessing.

Please read some of our favorite responses to the final prompt below and click the following links to read past contributions to the Community Writing Project: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, and Week 6.

Ian Morrison ’22

Blessing for the class: 
Don't mind the rain or the rolling sea
The weary night never worries me
But the hardest time in a sailor's day
Is to watch the sun as it dies away

This is a bittersweet verse from an old work song from the British Isle. It is about cherishing the days on the ocean, away from the troubles and worries of the rest of the world. Even though the workday is long and the conditions are rough and salty, the sailors wouldn’t trade the ocean life for anything, and the end of each day is a sad moment. So for my class I want them to appreciate the things they have. And when I say things I don’t mean objects, I mean memories, moments, thoughts and all immaterial things that we hope to remember. That’s what this quote is about, appreciating your life. So I urge people to take special care and try to make momentos and journal entries about your experiences because they are ways of preserving and honoring important moments.   

Toni Rose Babson ’23

I sat by my window finishing my assignments for the night as I watched the sky turn into a dark gray. A big cloud was covering the sky with a sheet of rain. I knew I had to stop working and run outside. I grabbed my shoes, no jacket, and picked up my electric scooter and ran outside. I scooted to the beach down the road from me. The rain was pouring down and I felt genuine happiness for the first time in months. I couldn’t stop smiling, it felt like my face had finally returned home. I left my scooter at the edge of the beach, and took off my shoes. I went to the middle of the beach and stood there, smiling. I felt the first fresh spring rain drenching me, my clothes and hair. Pure bliss. Pure happiness. I started to dance, without caring who saw me. It was the first time that I realized I didn’t care. I didn’t care what other people thought of me, I didn’t care about the societal expectations. I let go. 

This was one of the moments that I thanked quarantine. Without it, I would’ve been stuck caring. Thank god for not caring. 

Owen Cooper ’23

Inspire me to learn
And to make it a passion
Inspire me to be ambitious
To go the extra step, and to not stop at adequate

Inspire me to meet the challenge
To grow from, love, and overcome it
Inspire me to grow

Inspire me

Bonus Entry: Noah Calderaro ’27 (future Waring sixth grader)

(In response to last week’s prompt to write about what we miss)

The thing I miss most about life before lockdown is school, soccer and my friends. I miss running through the green grass and scoring goals, passing the white and black ball between my teammates. Soccer was such an important thing that I did and I can't wait until I can play again. Even though we have meetings twice a week it still is not the same as going to school regularly. Seeing my friends through a screen just is not the same as seeing them in person. Also in online school we do not have any projects and I can't work with my friends like I normally would. The other thing I miss is having my friends over to our house and going to theirs. I miss getting to go to the beach with them and gliding across the waves on our boogie boards and after we got tired we would go lay down and eat some soft watermelon. In the end there are many things that I miss but school, soccer, and my friends are the things that I miss most.