Humans of Emma Willard School

Julia and I have to begin planning our final project, and we can do that this week. Once we finalize what we are actually going to do, whether it is putting them up in the student center or not, we have to decide which picture and quotes we are going to put on the wall. We have a lot of options already, and as we continue to do interviews, we will have even more to choose from, so we need to select a few now that we really like so we can get those ready.

We have not done too many more interviews this month because of spring break. We have to get back into our rhythm of interviewing and posting soon, so we can have more as we go into the end of the year. We are finding it somewhat difficult to get a range of students from different grades. The juniors and seniors tend to be more willing to talk to us, and the freshman and sophomores seem a little more uncomfortable with it. I think that we have to find a better way of reaching out to them instead of approaching them because it might be making them feel a little awkward.

I believe that our vision for the big end of the year project has changed. We would now like to install the pictures, along with the quotes, in the student center because that is where much of the school pass through. This would allow the school to look at the work that we have done throughout the year, especially if they do not follow our social media. We have not to start planning the logistics of this but I am looking forward to it. 

Sophia and I have been conducting interviews individually and we have been making some progress. I think it will take more time for me to become comfortable confronting people when I am alone, but I am sure the time will come. I usually try to aim for people who are not busy doing work, but usually, people are working on homework during a free so it is sometimes hard to find someone to interview.

Alicia’ 19 recently interviewed me and Julia about our project for an issue of The Clock. It was interesting getting to experience the other side of the interview process. It was definitely more nerve-racking because I felt like I had to phrase every thought perfectly, but I also felt like I needed to answer every question immediately after she asked it. She asked questions that made us really think about why we were doing this project and what we hoped to gain from it, and they were very thought-provoking and made me think more about what message I want to spread to others.

We have decided to not put our interviews into a book this year. It is something I will look into for next year, but this year we did not start thinking about it early enough to be able to make it in time. Instead, we want to look into possibly printing out some pictures along with their interviews and putting them on a wall near the 2e Cafe or the student center.

We have not completed the amount of interviews that we had hoped by now, so I am thinking that we need to alter our end goal, or pick up the pace. I am sure that if we put our mind to it, we could complete a good amount of interviews, but completing the book at this point may seem out of reach. 

 I am finding it to be kind of difficult to get back into things. Sophia and I keep seeing the same people during G, so we are thinking of doing separate interviews during our other frees in hopes of finding a different range of people. We want to interview the most variety of people that we can and interviewing during only G is limiting us.

Sophia and I are making good progress. With revels week and break coming up, I am sure that our interviews will be slowing down until we return from break. In the meantime, I hope that we have enough so that we can possibly upload some while we are on break.

“I am generally a very happy person but I think it’s a little bit of a decision in a way. You kind of have to pull yourself out whatever kind of things bring you down and be self-aware about the things that tend to make you upset. When this happens, you really have to try and think of the things that make you the happiest to pull you out of it. No one is going to be perfectly happy for an entire day, so what I try and do is find the little moments in each day where I feel the happiest and really appreciate it and consciously realize how beautiful those moments are. I view happiness as a necklace. You have to string those pure moments together like the beads to form the happiness through your week and your life.”