Do you like beauty? Do you like making beautiful things? Can you envision looking out the window at rolling French countryside and hearing the clickety-clack of a train?

Each student begins his or her Proctor experience at a different stage of life. Some start as ninth graders, others do not arrive until the tail end of their high school career as juniors or seniors. On Wednesday, members of the Class of 2018 gathered as a class to complete an Independent School Gender Survey before hiking to the Proctor Cabin as a class; a tradition begun five years ago that has proven powerful.

There is something about a beautiful fall day that brings out the best in a place. Smiling faces walking around campus, sun-filled classrooms, lunch outside on the lawn, and a host of athletic contests certainly showed well to the visiting families on tour yesterday.

More than two-thirds of our population is in the midst of either Sports Camp or Wilderness Orientation. At the heart of each of these programs is the formation of relationships: relationships with faculty and fellow new students on Wilderness Orientation, relationships with teammates and coaches in pre-season sports camp, and a budding relationship with Proctor as a community.

It is not easy starting a new journey.

A blend of excitement and anxiety accompanies the new, but when families arrived on Tuesday for registration, when we gathered under the big tent to talk about wilderness orientation with the rain gently drumming down, you could sense the collective willingness to grow.

It requires stepping outside of comfort zones and leaving the familiar behind.