Last Sunday afternoon I walked through the Norris Family Theater to the sound of power drills and pieces of the set for The Foreigner thumping to the ground. The living room, the fireplace, the windows, and the doors – everything was gone. Where the night before there had been the beckoning magic of Cooper and Amanda conjuring a separate reality, now screws clattered to the floor and lumber was being stacked. Jacob pushed through with a broom, a visual cue to the lessons of deconstruction. Moment passes to moment, season to season, term gives way to term. 

Over the last week we have been relatively busy processing discipline infractions: a dismissal, an appeal of another dismissal, and other blips on the discipline front that kept Drew Donaldson busy. I addressed the school in last Friday’s assembly prior to the weekend and spoke to the needs of the community, the need to collectively step up. Ours is not simply a community of rules, overly prescriptive, and we know relationships create the fabric of community and give it texture. So what does this last week say about Proctor in February?

With another week around the corner, excitement for what is coming ahead starts to grow. The time for reflection on this week's adventures has come though and in the wake of my mother's visit I'm happy to have this week's blog. 

Monday morning, we hopped on the TGV high powered train, and started our adventure to Paris! We arrived at the Gare-de-Lyon train station at 12:30 and took our first steps into the City of Light and the City of Love.

(photo) Jacqui Morris

I have adjusted to life in Aix, and time is going by pretty fast. It’s hard to believe that two weeks has already gone by and that we are leaving for Paris tomorrow! With my excitement for the future, I want to reflect on yet another remarkable seven days in France.

Last week, marketing guru Seth Godin published a blog entitled “The Awareness Threshold”. He discussed the seven step process through which people move from being unaware of an idea to awareness, to categorizing the idea based on our life experience, to forming an opinion, to experiencing the idea, to forming of a new opinion, and eventually to sharing that new opinion with others. This intellectual journey occurs daily as we learn about world events, political happenings, and new technological discoveries.

Shifting back to a regular schedule following vacation never is easy. We are incredibly fortunate to have spent the last two weeks living life at a slower pace as we enjoyed time with family and friends around the holidays.  As we scroll through our social media feed this morning and see friends outside of our Proctor bubble complaining about returning to work, we are reminded how fortunate we are to live and work in a boarding school environment. Our transition back to work does not sacrifice family time, but rather expands it as we welcome students back into our lives after a two-week hiatus. 

Every weekend at boarding school is packed with activities. One of our greatest strengths at Proctor is providing students the an opportunity to pursue their passions. Academic classes, art electives, and afternoon programs integrate this exploration into the academic week, however, weekend activities provide yet another outlet for students to have fun, try new activities, and spend time together in community. This past weekend epitomized why boarding school life is so appealing!