On March 6, 2020, our VI form Chapel speaker told us of his brush with mortality and advised us not to underestimate how wonderful “normal life” really is. None of us knew at the time that we were beginning our last day of “normal” at St. Mark’s.
We marked the one year anniversary of that day last week, and I asked students and adults to share their experiences of the past year so that I could reflect them back to the community in Chapel. Their reflections varied as much as we all vary, and in that alone there was much to learn:
“I’ve lost a grounded sense of the world and how it works.”
“It isn’t the worst thing.”
“I want it back, even the stuff I didn’t like.”
“I liked it.”
“I feel expendable.”
“I’ve gone through a lot and grown a lot.”
“I am so weary, but not able to fall asleep.”
“I had my first experience of being on the receiving end of overt racism and xenophobia in this country.”
“It has taught me how to adapt and deal with change.”
“Without friends and classmates around, I do not even feel like a human being any more.”
“I better understand that happiness is found within me.”
“Deep sense of loss; family members have died this year.”
“I will be forever changed.”
The sheer diversity of responses reminded me that we never know how others are feeling as we emerge from this year. Our experience has been unusually communal and equivalent on one level, yes, but that is only at the surface. On a deeper level, our experiences are entirely individual and idiosyncratic. Ask, and listen.
--The Rev. Barbara Talcott
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Do you know someone in the St. Mark’s community who would enjoy these reflections?
