Over the next couple of days we will be featuring short narratives written by each of our forty-nine new students in the spring 2012 class. Enjoy these personal, inspirational, exciting, and sometimes surprising glimpses into what its like to be an Island School student, week 1.

Amelia Patsalos-Fox: Originally preparing to come to the island school, I was under the impression that giving up my cell phone, Facebook, and all other plugged in devices would be extremely challenging for me. In fact, though I still find myself out of habit, reaching for my telephone, this part of the experience has been the most fulfilling yet. As my Human Ecology class sat up on the deck tonight, examining the beautiful Caribbean stars, someone pointed out that the simple difference between a star and a planet is that stars twinkle and planets do not. The utter amazement in the faces of all my peers caught my attention. I started to think about why each and every person was able to take that simple fact and truly absorb and recognize the value of it. The conclusion I came to was that we were each able to do this because not one person had their cell phone out, checking Facebook. Not one person needed to communicate with a friend to talk about a spot to meet, or the latest piece of gossip. There was no materialism attached to our session on the roof and without the plug in and utter distraction of the plugged in Internet and outside world, each of us was able to appreciate and ponder the tiniest fact, which we will continue to do as we proceed through the next three months.

Felipe Gomez: When I heard I was in the dish crew, I was very disappointed. Continue reading →