Ask the Students
The students, plus Noah in pirate Halloween gear.
With the students fully recouped from trek, and trek being the monumental midpoint of the semester, I thought it was high time that the students be polled on their experience thus far. I took a random sample by sitting down in the den shortly before lunch and received some candid answers about the OA experience.
What have you done at OA that you have never done before in your life?
Sophia: I have felt very necessary to the community.
Imani: Going backpacking.
Alec: Liking school.
Evan: Trying in school.
Lea: Having real relationships with my teachers.
What are some of your goals for the rest of the semester?
Sophia: Live it up! Be here, be present, and continue to form bonds with people. Also, to come into my own intellectual voice.
Imani: Divide and conquer my grades.
Lea: To bring my new knowledge back home.
Alec: To bring a desire for learning back to my sending school.
What has been your favorite class day so far?
Sophia: When we did similes and metaphors in English. I’d used similes before but now they make sense—especially after actually doing the thing: running through the woods, and then saying, “running through the woods is like…”—much more real than when you’re sitting at a computer.
Imani: Leading Alec blindfolded through the woods [during English class on Elizabeth Bishop’s “Questions of Travel”.]
Lea: Whenever we just sit down and have a great discussion.
Alec: When we run around and then write.
What has been your favorite weekend activity?
Sophia: Having free time on Sundays; slack lining, having random dance parties in Cheoah. And the climbing trip, of course.
What has been the hardest moment of the semester?
Lea: Backpacking for nine days.
Imani: Pilot Mountain—it never ended!
Lea: Roan Mountain, although part of it was like Narnia.
Alec: Integrating with the community lifestyle; finding a newer version of myself.
Imani: Being around all these people. It’s like getting new siblings again, and the frustration that comes with being around new people for a long time.
Lea: Reeling in the sass.
What has been the silliest moment of the semester?
Lea: Oh man. Oh no! They’re all just so silly.
Alec: Everything is silly all of the time.
Lea: I’m either cracking up or having a deep conversation.
Alec: Yeah, it’s either one or the other. There’s no in-between. Never any…bad time.
