Week of April 7, 2008

I have no idea if you are able to see these 4 photos or if they have appeared on top of one another. If possible, I wanted to give you an idea of what went on at the fabulous all-girl sleepover. With 60 girls present and the brave Susan and Elise, it sounds like the evening could not have been better. They played games, ate great snacks, talked late into the night, and got little sleep. I arrived to help with pancakes in the morning...and heard many wonderful stories. When it came time for discussion, senior leaders had the rest of the girls write questions anonymously that related to body image, relationships, sex, and the CFS community. They then worked through as many of the questions as they could, confidentially and honestly responding and discussing. A lot of discussion focused on body image and beauty. One of the exercises involved going around the circle (no passing!) and completing the following prompt: I feel beautiful when... I have so much appreciation for the senior girls who planned and led our first ever all-girls sleepover--a very important event. They provided excellent leadership and set profound examples for our younger students.

MOMS: IF THEY CAN DO IT, CAN WE? I have a challenge for you mothers out there. (Sorry, dads, this is a female thing.) MOMS, Complete the sentence: I feel beautiful when...and email your responses to me. I will share them anonymously with your daughters. When I first thought about this prompt, my immediate reaction was an inability to come up with a response. After thinking about it, however, I DO have an answer. Since I would not ask you to do something that I'm unwilling to do myself...I feel beautiful when I am physically active--dancing, walking, swimming, doing yoga. OK, MOMS, now it's your turn. I look forward to hearing from you.

Meanwhile, our French visitors are here and we are very much enjoying their presence in the Upper School. During the early part of this week, they have plans to visit Duke, UNC (Sorry about Saturday night, tarheels.), museums in Raleigh, and the beach. On Wednesday, all of our visitors and hosts will trek to the zoo. For Friday, we have planned an all-US cookout and music jam to celebrate their last day with us. Thanks again to Ken Mitchell for planning this wonderful event.

On Thursday, Susan's Literature of War class will experience their 24-hour refugee camp. Each participant will arrive at 7am carrying only 5 things. They will be on the patio for 24 hours, hoping that caring individuals will help them out with food, some sort of shelter, and something to keep them warm. Susan has extended an invitation to MS and LS classes to visit the camp. She and her students will teach age-approprate lessons about the need for this type of camp. For those of you in Chapel Hill, we are looking forward to an article in the CH section of the N&O this week about Susan's class project by sophomore Sarah Nydick Cheshire.

The soccer team has home games on Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. We continue to work hard to keep a lid on spring fever energy in the Upper School. We are still in school!