After breakfast I do my Latin and Greek vocab and then head over to Chapel. Everyone has assigned seating, and mine is with the Choir. We don’t sing at every Chapel service, but we do lead the school hymn. I’m an alto. I’m also in Compline, which is a smaller group that sings during services in the Old Chapel on Thursday nights.
I love being a part of the engine of the boat, to feel the collective effort of the team in each race. It keeps me going throughout the long season.”
ANNA, SIXTH FORMER
I always start my day with breakfast
I haven’t missed a breakfast since I started at SPS; I try to get to Coit — that’s the dining hall — around 7:15. I get an omelet every day — cheese, usually with spinach and maybe mushrooms. Edwin knows my order, so I don’t even need to ask him.
Organ lesson
Most days, I’m back in the Chapel during B block to play the organ. When I started at St. Paul’s School, I jumped at the chance to learn to play the carillon — that’s the bells in the Chapel bell tower — and last year, I decided to tackle the organ, which, is a little like being a one-woman band. If I’ve made arrangements with the safety office ahead of time and there’s an adult available to accompany me, I might climb the tower and play a few things on the carillon — I’m one of the coheads of the Carillonneurs Guild. The carillon isn’t easy to get to; there’s this winding staircase that feels like it goes on forever, and there’s no railing. But there are these little windows you can look out and get the most amazing view of the whole campus. The library looks tiny from up there!
F Block is Greek class
… or should I say Ελληνική μάθηση! I take both Latin and Greek and am in the Classical Honors Program, which was one of the things that drew me to St. Paul’s. This year, I’m in Latin 5 Honors and Greek 3 Honors. It’s hard to say which I like better. I like the promised and proven structure of Latin, but Greek has some great literature. Last year, we read a science fiction novel by Lucien in Ancient Greek — it was so cool.
My last class of the day is history of journalism
Right now, we’re doing a media analysis and looking at bias in the news, looking at the media coverage of the war in Ukraine, and we’ll end up writing for the school paper, The Pelican. It’s probably my biggest class — there’s 13 of us. It’s with Ms. Ludwig and it’s in the library, which is one of my favorite places to take a class.
Classes end at 3 p.m., and then it’s time for athletics.
I ski in the winter, but in terms of athletics, my first love is rowing — I row stroke for the varsity first boat, and I’m one of the team captains this year. We only race in the spring; in the fall we work on our rowing form and our cardiovascular fitness. We get out on the water some, too; some of us just rowed at the Head of the Charles. Even when we’re not in season, the boathouse is my favorite place on campus.
8:30: Time to head to my dorm
I live in Warren, where I am a prefect with another girl named Anna. My prefect Third Form year was such a great, steadying presence for me, and having the chance to be that rock for other younger students means a lot to me. Sometimes I’m just there for the younger girls, but other times Anna and I are organizing fun events, like the scavenger hunt we did for the first Saturday night of school. We also team up sometimes with Chris and Grace, who are the prefects for our gender-inclusive floor. Since I tend to get a lot of my work done during the day, I try to have everything put away by 10 and then it’s lights out by 10:30!