These first three weeks of my Senior Spring Project have been an interesting adjustment, but have overall gone well. Due to random cancellations, I had even more free time than I now usually do. While at first I did not know how to handle this surplus of free time, it almost forced me to figure it out quicker because it felt so drastically different than normal school. What helped me the most in figuring this out was making notes for myself of what went well and what I could change. I found that while in general I had timed my Welcome Home sessions well, a few needed slight tweaking to be more convenient for when I was already on campus. Aside from slight changes in timing, Welcome Home has been a highlight of my SSP so far. Longer sessions have allowed me to focus better on my projects and have more creative freedom than I had with the time restraints of a 45 or 65 minute class. Some days this time is also social, where I can catch up with my friends also participating in the project, and I have found I am excited for any chance to see friends during SSP. Other times, Welcome Home is independent, I even sometimes find myself alone in the studio, which allows me to really focus on my work and improve my technique. I have also enjoyed having the end goal of donating the pieces because it gives me a sense of direction when I make the bowls and mugs and motivates me to work harder to make them functional and something I would want to use in my home.

One added bonus of SSP that I did not fully realize beforehand, was how different rowing practice would feel after not spending an entire day at school. The flexibility of SSP has enabled  me to prioritize preparing for practice when necessary, for example when I need to take a quick nap at home or make sure I eat a full meal at a good time. I also feel I have been able to better focus on supporting my teammates and being a responsive captain with less to juggle at school. Our team has almost 40 people on the girls’ side alone, so being able to show up to practice a few minutes early most days to help set up has been helpful in making practice go smoother.

The part of my SSP that has so far become a favorite, has been Dinner Club. The past two weekends we have met up first to plan and shop and then to cook and eat our meal together. We had to rearrange the order of our meals because the first week my friend Martha had recently gotten her wisdom teeth taken out and could only eat soft foods. Instead of our planned meal of Tikka Masala and homemade naan, our first menu consisted of Swedish meatballs, egg noodles, and roasted carrots. Swedish meatballs were new to all of us, so we had a fun and educational experience learning a new recipe while spending time with one another and catching up on our first week of SSP. We were all very proud of our final project and to be honest were a little surprised by how good the meal tasted. I left dinner excited to make the recipe again for my family. Our second week’s meal was Chicken Piccatta, with pasta and roasted broccoli. This dish was more simple, but learning how to cook with raw chicken was new to most of us and only two of us were willing to touch the raw chicken at all. But, we managed through the recipe, all taking turns with different steps, and produced a final project that we were all happy with. We even modified the recipe to make one flourless piece of chicken for myself who was keeping Passover. As much as the food and learning new recipes has been useful and interesting, my favorite part of Dinner Club is having a set time each week when my friends and I get together. During the planning of SSP, I remember many people saying to do things with your friends, because otherwise you won’t see them, and this has proved to be very true. The first week, aside from the Dinner Club, I saw only a couple of my close friends, and most interactions were just lucky moments when we had a class at the same time. In the second week, I began to prioritize seeing my friends more and I felt happier overall. 

My other Senior Seminar, French Conversations, was one I was unsure of when signing up, but I am now very glad I chose. I originally signed up because my friends taking the class wanted me to do it with her and I didn’t want to lose the French I had built up over 4 years. Writing has always been easier than talking so I figured that a class dedicated solely to speaking in a more casual setting would be beneficial, and that has definitely been the case. The seminar only meets twice a week with short “homework” in between that consists of watching an episode of the French show “Lupin,” but so far I look forward to the classes. In French class I found that I spoke the best when I felt relaxed and at ease, and this class is creating a situation like that. My technical grammar may not be at its best but it is fun to speak with my friends in the language we spent years working hard to learn. 

The other part of my SSP is the continuation of my Calculus class as we now prepare for the AP exam. I have enjoyed the class, and it has been nice to have more free time to do the homework as a single assignment, not one of many, but it has functioned pretty much the same as my class before SSP started, except for some classes taking place in the Community Room because we have too many students. 

Overall, I have enjoyed the start of SSP and am pleased with how I planned it out. I also look forward to figuring out new ways to spend my free time, maybe playing more piano or painting or doing yoga with my friends, because my free time is the main part of SSP I am still figuring out. I am also considering visiting my former Kindergarten teacher to help out in her classroom, which would not count for my SSP, but would be a fun way to return to my old school and would be a new experience.