Joy

As many of you know, I celebrated a milestone birthday last week. I was lucky enough to receive cards from many of our Lower Schoolers, and (aided by Coach Morrison) every eighth grader gave me a bag of Cheez-Its. Upper elementary students made cards featuring Egyptian art, second graders created a “50 things about Mr. Norry” poster, first graders made their own math problems for me, Kindergarten presented me with “The Birthday Tree,” and TK took the prize for creativity.

In TK-D, each student responded to the prompt: “Being 50 Means…” Here are some samples:

• You’re really close to turning 51. – Hayden
• You get 50 presents. – Vivienne
• You have to work like grown-ups. – Eleanor
• You get to buy a racecar. – Hunter
• If something’s broken, you have to fix it. – Emma
• You get to talk whenever you want. – Ethan
• You’re halfway to 100! – Lucille

Meanwhile, students in TK-W each offered a piece of “life advice.” As it turns out, most of these hold true for all ages! Again, some samples:

• Look at the moon at night. – Bethany
• Have an adventure. – Nova
• Go hiking. – Ellie
• Play in the snow. – Sawyer
• Snuggle at home near a fire. – Walker
• Sometimes you should carry a purse. – Jack
• Try to remember what you did before you turned 50. – Ethan

In truth, I never loved this day before coming to TDS. Everyone’s birthday wishes would fill me with angst because I knew I was ill-equipped to reciprocate. Outside of my immediate family, I simply cannot remember people’s birthdays.

At TDS, birthdays are fun for kids and adults. Over the past nine years, I’ve been showered with attention, cards, advice, and even many guesses at my age (that ship has now sailed!), and this has filled my heart. Last Friday was full of joy for me.

I’ve often quipped that joy is our unofficial sixth core value at TDS. There are so many moments of warmth, discovery, teamwork, laughter, success, celebration, and connection. So many smiles, and so many hugs.

Joy has been in shorter supply across the globe since March 2020. At some point over the past two years, we’ve all experienced missed time with relatives and friends, disrupted routines, canceled vacations, as well as the stress and anxiety that stem from living in fear of getting sick, or infecting someone more vulnerable than ourselves. And while TDS remains a warm and welcoming place, it has been nearly two years without hugs, visible smiles, (in-person) all-school assemblies, field trips, even sitting in a close circle on the floor. This makes a difference when it comes to how connected we feel.

As I indicated in my January 14 communication, our next challenge will be to consider how best to continue to live in a world with Covid. This will include taking into account vaccination rates, emerging therapeutic treatments, and the virulence of current variants when determining protocols. Just as important, we must broaden our definition of risk to include the toll that the past two years has taken on our mental and emotional health, and we must keep the sixth core value of joy squarely in our sights.

In the coming days, please look for an invitation to a virtual meeting where I will provide more details on our plans moving forward, and the reasoning behind them.