Day 144: "You speak in essays."

The weather wasn't the only gray thing about today -- it was my last day at Flint Hill! After reading Sonnet 144 in the car, I arrived at school this morning to news from Jake Shor that some of my pieces had been fired! It was awesome and super gratifying to be able to see a few of my finished products.


Leaving the kiln, I sauntered into Mr. Chang's room, where I had the pleasure of reading/proofing his Curriculum Vitae, Teaching Philosophy, and Personal Statement for an application he is compiling. Now that was what I call good reading!

After bidding Mama Maddox bye-bye, I embarked on a quest to find Ms. Cardone. I made a slight (okay, major) detour to Mr. Lamont's office, to receive his blessing before my upcoming trip to India. Following his warm words, I interrupted Ms. Kotey's class to wish her farewell and pick her brains about some plans I have.

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch with two of my brothers! We had a super conversation (i.e. I talked and they listened) about sonnets and sewage treatment, two of my favorite things. LITERATURE AND ENVIRO NERD = ME.


Post prandium, it was back to the studio! For the past few weeks, Ms. Okoth (middle school art teacher) and I have been coordinating a cross-campus Empty Bowls collaboration between students of Flint Hill's two campuses.

Today, it was go time! Jordan and I had to crank out the slab and supplies for 25 middle school students to make one bowl each -- but just to be safe, we made double. I never knew Ceramics could make one sweat! As the clock struck 2:30, I said one last goodbye all my babies (including a very tearful Bradley) before the Clay Club boarded a bus to the middle school.

We arrived before the young ones did, giving us plenty of time to set up tables with construction stations for each of them.


As the middle school students filed in, Jordan and I gave them a demo, before letting them loose and strolling around the room helping where we could.


After the students had added texture to their clay and laid it into the molds, they moved to the decorating station, where the young artists could adorn pre-bisqued bowls with underglaze patterns of their choice.


I was truly impressed with the artistic talent exhibited by the kids (children are so in touch with that part of themselves), as well as the support shown from Clay Club members! I was blown away by the number of high school students who just hopped on the bus to come help, and worked so well with the kids. In my view, our project was wildly wonderful!

With cleanup almost completed, Priya and I pranced onto the bus for my last ride with Dee Dee until April. Blog readers, please remind me to write letters to my incredible bus driver from my travels, since she has no computer or internet.


Back home, I put the finishing touches on my packing, a process which was expedited by my new and ingenious laundry system. With sneakers and shalwar kameezes packed, I'm now pretty much ready to go!

It's time for my penultimate workout in America and perhaps some continuation of Don before retiring for the night.


新年快乐!

Comments

  1. Hey so ive read every blog post you have ever had and i just wanted to say that this one especially had heart in it. With ever post you have a consistant level of emotion in your posts which really shows that there is an actual person behind the posts. That there is actually someone named Ratna Gill that happens to also by my best friend.

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