Another Take on Dress Code

Today I came back from sports and took a shower. I didn't really want to, but tonight was Evensong (the hour long chapel that nobody really knows what its about), and I had to get dressed up. I don't like getting dressed up. Never have, probably never will. Whenever Seated comes around I stumble about the dorm trying to find an acceptable outfit. Its usually a challenge but I'm still always the first one ready (I don't waste my time and my youth putting on a pound of makeup). But back to Evensong. Today, especially, I was in a mood where I frankly did NOT want to put on a dress and some strappy shoes. What I really wanted to do was take a nice, long, quiet bike ride off campus to collect myself. Well I have a half hour to Evensong..I was seriously considering bagging and taking my much needed ride. Alas, I could not summon the courage.

So, in haste and also to prove a point about getting dressed up, I went to my closet and got out my skinny jeans. And a nice shirt, and some high heels. Needless to say I looked put together. I looked like I had taken my time to prepare for the service. I even put on earrings! All my friends warned me against the choice, but I held my position. I was going to wear those jeans to chapel like it was nobody's business. And you know why?

Two reasons: I don't like getting dressed up, and that I don't believe it matters what somebody is wearing, it only matters their attitude and what they bring to the table. A brief explanation of my first reason: I really just don't like getting dressed up.

But the real reason I made the decision to wear jeans? Its because in my mind it shouldn't matter our dress or our style, but how we participate and how we interact. I could have been the only one singing those hymns and paying attention to the speaker with my eyes wide open, but even so, I am not allowed to wear the outfit of my choice. Our society and community continually express the importance of being a non-judgemental and non-prejudice population. We are told constantly to effectively be blind, using our ears to get to know somebody rather than our eyes. So why should it matter what we wear? I understand that chapel is a place to respect and be respected. It is just a matter of in what form.

Looking around chapel I see close to six hundred individuals wearing the same outfit. Girls clad in floral print dresses and either sandals or pumps and boys in blazers and ties. Does that make them respect the service any more than myself in jeans? (By that time I had already changed). Those same people who had dressed respectively (and therefore conformed) are also the ones asleep in the service. Me? I was wide awake. I was paying attention to the speaker (trying; you see its really hard sitting in the antichapel) and I was reading aloud our school prayer. My clothing virtually had no role in this. I would have acted the same had I been wearing my jeans--probably even better, because I would have been comfortable in the outfit I'd chosen.

So why should it matter the clothing we wear? Respect is something much less material--respect is shown through actions. Whoever fell asleep today was disrespecting the service one thousand times that of somebody wearing jeans. Therefore, us as both students and citizens shouldn't have to waste an hour of our time dressing up for a service, we should spend our time doing what pleases us, and afterwards we'll be in a good mood. I bet you anything a whole lot more people will remember what happened during the service. A whole lot more people will show their respect through things that matter, like uniting our community by singing and praying together. This is a true case of, 'its whats on the inside that counts.'
Thank you.

This Isn't Right

She looks over at her friend and talks about how proud she is of her three year old daughter who already, at age three, can navigate the iPhone and the iPad and the iMac and the iPod and all the while I sit next to her friend who should at least have as much common sense as I do to think that this is disgusting, not normal and not right but instead as the woman keeps talking about her daughter and how she helped the eight year-old with the new iPad by showing her how to use it and the friend seems amazed and in awe but still I can't believe that the world has come to this disgusting and horrible thing and it makes me sad that I'm living in it and all I want to do right now is go somewhere else like Africa or Latin America where hopefully things are different and people are still people and families are still families and perhaps other people in this god forsaken place feel the same way that I do and if they do, why don't they speak up about it?

My Bike and Trust

Trust. I thought I trusted the SPS campus and community that I didn't have to lock my bike up everywhere I leave it. Evidently, not. Today, when I went to dinner at 5:30 my bike was sitting in front of Middle on the bike rack, unlocked. Fifty minutes later I returned to my dorm, only to see that my MOST PRIZED POSSESSION- my light blue Trek road bike- was missing. At first I was nervous but assumed that a friend, whom I'd loaned the bike to earlier in the day but had returned it, had decided to borrow it again and just didn't leave a note. During my radio show, AbiRoad, I kept calling said friend to see if he'd borrowed it, and eventually he answered. He said that he returned the bike after finding a nice bike from the bike share program. Where was my bike? It had been missing for two hours.

It was returned, thankfully, to the bike rack, without a note but with somebody's bottled water in the holder. Honestly, what scared me the most was the thought that my bike was out there somewhere without me, with somebody who I didn't know, and what was happening to it? It was almost comparable to the feeling when a loved one goes missing. As a Third Former just finding my way around SPS I have pretty much ignored the 'Trust' issue until now, when I find how much of a problem it is.

At home in San Francisco I know to always keep my bike in view, or locked up. But even then, I was pretty bad about keeping my bikes safe. I've had three bikes stolen in the past two years. In fall term I locked my bike up at the Upper, at my dorm, behind Mem Hall, and virtually any other place where I left it. By now I ride so often I've become lazy and stopped locking the bike. But that is also because I've become comfortable at SPS-I trust the amazing people here to know better than to steal my bike right under my nose. I mean, who in the world would do that?

I can't say I've met anybody yet who strikes me as a thief, because the people at St. Paul's seem to be too good for that. We talk four times a week in Chapel about the community and how special it is to us. How to everyone whose had a brush with the school has been amazed at the maturity, intelligence, and friendliness of the students and faculty. How seniors almost tear up during their senior speeches talking about what they love the most about SPS.

Well, as a Third Former, my favorite thing about St.Paul's was the people. How they smiled, and waved, and called out my name. I've never felt more welcome in a community than this one. It's spring term, and although the year is coming to an end soon enough I still wake up every morning with a smile, ready to seize the day. But since this incident I'm just not so sure. A friend of mine, who is a senior boy, once told me that he doesn't trust anybody at this school. He said that he's known everyone for four years and still does not trust them.

Is that really the mindset we want this school to have?

That although we live together, eat together, learn together, pray together, play together, we're still not united? Almost everyone I know considers SPS their home. At least in my home I know when to ask to borrow something. I know the difference between grabbing a pencil or scissors off of somebody's desk versus taking their bike for two hours. At home you generally know what people consider their most prized possession. All of my friends at school know how much I love my bike. I even color match my sneakers with my bike.

At a place as auspicious as this one, if people can't trust each other, where can they?

I Wish I Could Write

i wish i could write a poem about

my years of enduring poverty

i slept on the street

i ate from the trash

i wish i could write about

getting slapped in the face

by a drunk father

and running away to the big city

and getting into fuck knows what

i wish i could write about flunking out of

school or making some boys drool

or being just too cool

i wish i could write about how it feels

to be high or on meth

substance alcohol sex

i wish i could write about my raging sexual fantasies

and put them up on the walls of my prep school

screaming to prudes that its all gonna be fine

wake up your life, you don't know whats right

all this teenage shit,

its supposed to happen

so don't try to control you life too much now

you have adulthood for that. 

My REAL "Lost Boys of Hockey" Article

The Lost Boys of Hockey

“Oh momma don’t you cry, St. Paul's hockey is do or die.”

“I play fall and spring hockey, there is no off season” stated Flurin Domenig ’13. “I do not play any other sport this year. I used to play varsity lacrosse, also tried JV Baseball. I just go to the gym and prepare for the upcoming hockey season. It is hockey season 365 days a year for us,” said Derick Roy ’11. Contrary to popular belief that “hockey bros” hang out with the ladies 24/7, there’s more to the “bros” than flirting. “I do not play any other sports. I left varsity soccer and lacrosse to dedicate all my time to hockey, which I did before coming to SPS” says Paul Arthur Plaisir ’11. This is what happens to hockey players when they come to St. Paul’s. Ryan Bliss ’14, for example, a hockey recruit, plays baseball in the spring, and Luke Babcock ’14 plays lacrosse. So did captain Derick Roy ’11, until he stopped so that he could pursue hockey 365 days a year.

Quite obviously hockey players take their sport seriously. “I miss hockey when I don't play hockey for 3 days. A couple of years ago I didn't play for 4 days and it was a dark time in my life” Flurin Domenig ’13. However this “all hockey all the time” mindset is not limited to just the varsity boys. Three new members of the girls JV team feel the same- Hannah Hirschfeld ’14, Tommie Deering ’14, and Carter Ballentine ’13. According to Hannah, “Hockey made my winter because of so many things, especially when we got to do Supermans at practice, even when Lucy Chase (’13) cheated.” Tommie commented that, “Regardless of whether I got to dress for the games sitting on the bench with the green line made me never want to play in games anyways.” Carter agrees on this, when she says, “Even though I didn’t get to play in a single game hockey was the highlight of my winter.”

According to students, the hockey players can be seen congregating after chapel, sitting at the Upper together, playing roller hockey together, and most notably surrounding Third Form girls. Why is this? “We're a group of guys who all come together for something that is much bigger then all of us combined and when you take a group of guys who all have such a passion for something the bonds that you form with those boys are stronger then ones that I have yet to find,” answers Sam Hudziak ’13.

To put it in the words of Greg Zaffino ’13, “Hockey is just the best sport.” Hockey at St. Paul’s sets the mood, whenever the “bros” travel in a pack its noticeable whether or not they had a successful game—either solemnly quiet, or loud and rowdy. But really, what it takes to be a “hockey bro” is true dedication for hockey—live for it, die for it. Even at the expense of some Third Form girls. 

A Background

I just recently (as in twenty minutes ago) got into a quarrel with a close friend of mine over the controversy in the Middle East. The argument stemmed from the publication of my high school newspaper (on which I am a staff writer) an article entitled, "No Peace in the Middle East." The article itself was factual and consistently true, however because of a couple of things the author may have written with his voice rather than that of a nonbiased journalist I lost my bearings. I am an Israeli-American student at an elite boarding school in New England. I'm from California but  I read and speak Hebrew fluently and both of my parents grew up in Israel. So I've always felt the need to be the person defending the amazing Middle East to which I pledge ancestry, even if it means defending unto the last straw the same Islamic Extremists that the United States of America fights to eradicate.To be clear- I love the Middle East- unconditionally, I believe that it is one of the most culture rich, amazing regions of the world, from the delicious food to the sandy deserts to the traditional and honorable citizens.In my life I look forward to traveling to both Arab and Semitic nations alike, and hope that in the coming time the beauty of the Middle East will never falter.
But back to my quarrel. In brief the article talked about how the "countries of the Middle East can be divided into 3 main categories: countries that are clearly improving, countries that are in political transition, and countries that are in bad situations either not improving or getting even worse." What did the author mean by 'improving' versus 'getting worse?' In context, improving indicated the countries such as Morocco and Tunisia which have both made drastic steps toward Westernization through both freedom of press and speech, technological advancement, and democracy. 'Getting worse,' then, implies nations that do not agree with Western culture and democracy, therefore do not live by it, and are seen as in need of help.
Why did Iran revolutionize in 1979 to become super Islamic? Because that's what the people wanted. When the citizens of a country as great as Iran took to the streets and threw out the Shah they had full knowledge of their intentions for their country. They wanted Islam. They wanted it in full, they wanted dictatorship, the wanted cencorship of press, and they wanted burqas.
Why are American troops still in Afghanistan? Why do the Afghan people fight back? Because they don't want to destroy the culture they have preserved for tens of centuries. They want to stick to tradition.  When American soldiers stomp onto their soil what does that look like? It looks like a non-cultured, non-thoughtful American with a machine gun slung on their back with half a mind to shoot at the first living thing they see. The threat that we pose as Americans is much different than what the public believes.
We hear in the news about all the soldiers who died in the past week in battle. Well why did they die and who killed them? And for what? Something tells me that these men and women didn't just get shot by a machine gun for no reason- no human in their right mind kills a man out of the blue. No, these servicemen were shot because they pose the threat of the obstruction of justice by forcing upon unwilling people democracy, a genocide of culture, and that maybe, just maybe, if enough of dem' soldiers die Obama will take them away.
How can a great and powerful nation like these 50 United States do to an entire people what we ourselves fear the most?
What if a plethora of Mujaheeden and Taliban soldiers marched over American soil and handed out burqas to every woman they saw? What if they imprisoned Obama and installed an extremist dictator they deem worthy to rule? What right does a human have to do that to another?
Absolutely none, is the answer. No human, American or Arab, Asian or Hispanic, African or Jew, has the right to impose a way of living undesired by the party they have attacked. Nobody has the right to force any way of living other than what is wanted. So what if Iranians want a more Islamic state?
They don't live in the U.S.A., or anyplace even near it. What threat do they pose to us? Well if we tear up their soil and walk around with machine guns, they have the right to be angered. We need to let them be. We need to accept that we cannot Westernize the entire world. We need to live and let live, not live and let die.
America needs to stop the war on Islam. Islam is great. Although not everything about it is great, neither is everything about any other religion. Every religion has its extremists. For Jew's, thats Chabad, for Christianity, its Evangelists. The only difference between any of these extremists and Muslim ones is that  Islam as a whole is being attacked by America-America is anti-Islam. So when people start to attack one another, those being attacked will fight back. It's human instinct. We just need to accept the fact that Muslims will be Muslims, and Americans will be Americans. There is nothing wrong with either lifestyle chosen, they are just different.
So when it is implied in a high school newspaper that countries in the Middle East leaning towards a more Islamic state are "getting worse," and ones that want to be just like America are the ones "improving," it goes to show how even the most informed person is still biased against the Islamic culture that so many people value.