Tag archives: Dear Montecito
It’s natural for students who move away from home to feel nostalgic about the place they left. I am reminded of this every week, reading letters about people’s experiences growing up in Montecito. Some speak to my own memories more than others. The letters about surfing and hiking… well, let’s just say I look like […]
My mom, Carrie Haffner, has two stickers on her car. One is a harbor pass that expired six years ago, the other is a Bucket Brigade magnet. She likes both and says she keeps them because they “show other people that we’re locals.” This week we’re hearing from an old classmate of mine, Laguna Blanca […]
Dear Montecito, Exams are finished. School is out. What’s a girl to do? I could start a political campaign. How hard could that be? All in favor of banishing the word “unprecedented,” say aye. I cleaned my room – that’s a good start. Did some work-related housekeeping too; you may notice I have a new […]
I have this story I tell people to explain how I became interested in biology. It goes like this: When I was young, I watched Star Trek with my father. I liked to imagine myself zooming around, going to new planets, wearing my space-tech-fabric blue uniform (blue was, of course, my favorite color). There was […]
We’ve heard from a variety of different perspectives in this column, giving us a sense of how each person’s relationship with their hometown changed after heading off into the bigger world. We’ve heard from Clay Rodgers, whose relationship with Montecito and his music career was complicated by natural disasters. We’ve heard from Julia Kupiec, who […]
This week you are being treated to yet another saga from bonnie Scotland –only this time, the story is not from me. Meet Tobias Cole, Montecito native and second year student at the University of St Andrews. I met Tobias for the first time in a coffee shop on North Street, St Andrews. And I […]
If I had to think back, I would say the first time I learned about sustainable agriculture was during one of the Montecito Union School Earth Day events. There were always a number of stations for us students to visit. I remember the bicycle-powered blender, the birdhouse making station, and what I think was probably […]
It was not my intention to feature quite so many letters in this column that draw attention to my personal kryptonite (math), and yet, here we are. This week you are being treated to a letter from someone who is not only a talented visual artist but also an aspiring mathematician. Meet Alec Sherwin! Son […]
I’ve written and rewritten this introduction so many times. I keep revising because I want to get it right. Most importantly, I want to get it right without any of the self-congratulatory nonsense that often accompanies social justice grandstanding. I first met KiSea Katikka on my visit day to Crane Country Day School. A shared […]
Much to my disgust, this week’s letter is from yet another wonderfully gifted visual artist. Meet Sierra Willard, current student at University of the Arts London and Laguna Blanca alum. High ranking on the list of things I’m not good at is drawing. Any type of drawing. My freshman year of college, I was in […]
Dear Montecito, It is around this time every year that a very particular group of people begins to make themselves known to the world. A strange class of individuals who, in response to the first chills of mid-autumn, adopt an insultingly festive attitude, sprout twinkle lights from their ears, and pull out all their best […]
I’m going to tell you something, and I’ll bet you haven’t heard it before. Back in school, my most stressful subject was art class. Every single year. Even when I liked it, art class was always a source of anxiety for me. I cannot isolate shapes or reproduce still images, and as someone who felt […]
I do a fair bit of writing when I can work up the courage to face my laptop keyboard. Do you know the feeling you get when you’ve stared at one word for too long and it no longer looks right? In psychology, we call this “semantic saturation.” It’s the idea that prolonged exposure or […]
As a biology student, I spend much of my time learning about the effect an environment has on its organisms. As a psychology student, I focus on the interaction between an individual and their surroundings. To appreciate growth and change, these are the principles you must understand. But these ideas are not exclusive to the […]
In response to the novel coronavirus, schools around the world rushed to integrate their curriculum into online learning platforms. Concessions were made by students, teachers, and administrators alike to accommodate a novel learning experience that was, to many, the bane of a semester reaching its conclusion. I have heard many accounts of slow Wi-Fi and […]
As schools around the country start to reopen and older students begin the migration back to college life, I worry about the safety of teachers and pupils alike. But a smaller, less socially conscious voice in the back of my head quietly cheers for the small freedom of leaving home. Some of us may have […]
As I write the introduction for today’s letter, I’m doing something I usually don’t do while I write and edit: listen to music. I’m listening to a funky, young album called The Deep End produced by a composing duo who recorded the whole thing in only two weeks. Today we’re hearing from rising artist, Clay […]
This week’s letter comes from a person who recently made their professional debut doing the 3D VFX work for the 2019 blockbuster Little Women. Animation student Beatrice Tolan is a rising senior at Northeastern University in Boston where she is pursuing her BA with a minor in theatre. This, of course, is no surprise to […]
Raise your hand if you’ve ever wondered why medical workers do what they do. Don’t be shy. No one can see you after all, you’re reading a newspaper. It’s a natural thing to watch news footage of hospitals, the beds packed, the staff tired and wonder how anyone could want to go into healthcare (even […]
