Image from www.norwichfreeacademy.com. Slater Museum is in the Background, Norton Gymnasium ("The Old Gym") is centered on the Photo, the lamp in the foreground is on the front facade of the Cranston building (home to all Freshman and nicknamed "The Playpen").In general, it's been an interesting experience for me. I have many good memories in this house and have known a lot of happiness here. It will be strange coming back to Connecticut and going somewhere other than 12 Southgate Circle. However, the whole concept didn't really strike home until I visited my high school, the Norwich Free Academy, in neighboring Norwich.
I'm incredibly proud of NFA. It was founded in 1854 by the wealthy merchants of Norwich (at the time awash in money from the bustling harbors on the Thames River) and while it was endowed like a private academy it was open to all students in the area. It has a museum on campus, complete with casts of classic works such as the Piéta, the Nike statue from Athens and the front facade from the Parthenon. It has a beautiful, sprawling campus that a substitute bus drive once mistook for a college and over 2,000 students from every conceivable walk of life.
That's all very impressive and most of my friends have heard me brag about it at some point. However, that's not what makes it so dear to my heart. When I attended NFA, I was the 17th member of my immediate family (by the best count of my parents and I) to do so. My great-grandmother attended for three years before leaving to work, all four of my grandparents, my parents, aunt, uncles, brothers and I all graced the halls.
Of course, that's just my immediate family. I couldn't even begin to list all the cousins and relatives that have been part of the NFA tradition. My grandfather, John Friswell, was on the Board of Trustees. My brother Mark was a record-setting basketball player (my individual career was less impressive than his, but I was the captain of a team that it would not be ridiculous to call the best ever to play in the long history of the school...sorry, I had to brag a bit). My Aunt Reggie has taught there since I-don't-know-when, and several cousins have worked there including Joseph (Guiseppe) Levanto, former superintendent and namesake of the Levanto-Alumni House on campus.
Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. When I was a senior in high school, my school named a building after my family. Growing up Levanto, most of my highest ambitions revolved around going to the Norwich Free Academy.
So it was a strange experience to visit yesterday. I still know a few teachers and remember the good old days on campus, but it is just not where my puzzle piece fits anymore. When I checked in to get a visitor's pass, I didn't know a single person in the office. While visiting Aunt Reggie's classroom, I realized that I was a decade older than her students. Worst of all, I'll admit that it did not feel like yesterday that I roamed around as a lost greasie (traditional NFA slang for a first year student, who are officially known as juniors, not freshmen) or stood on the football field during the Homecoming ceremony. The only thing that made me feel like I did back then was my awkward self-consciousness whenever I walked passed a group of giggling girls.
However, this blog post is not really about me. It's about the reason that I visited in the first place. A good friend of mine from my own NFA days, Amy Rygielski, is now in her third full year as an English teacher. This concept blows my mind. Somebody that I clowned around with in the cafeteria and watched play for the softball and volleyball team is now teaching at the school. I'd always said that I'd love to be a teacher, but I felt the only place I could do it and be happy was at NFA. Amy is living the dream.
I sat in on Amy's...ahem Ms Rygielski's...last period class and watched her public speaking students give talks based on an assignment she designed. The kids were really impressive, especially how patient they were with each other while presenting. One student broke into tears while telling the class about his problems at home and family's recent foreclosure notice. Amazing. I never would've done that in school and I was very impressed by how kind and receptive his classmates were.
What was so striking, and wonderful, about the experience was the time was the time I got to spend talking to Amy about her job. She loves it. She told me that she laughed every day and multiple times during and after the class she looked at me and said: "How great is my job?" She spoke glowingly about her students and the opportunities she's had, and remembered with amazement the fated chain of events that got her the job.
The most telling part of her happiness was that it was not all sugar-and-honey. She certainly had her complaints: red-tape bureaucracy, co-worker frustration, challenges dealing with the problems of students, commuting to work and then bouncing over to Rhode Island to visit her still-close group of friends from her URI days. Yet, she just kept repeating: "How great is my job?"
So, thank you Amy (I'm assuming she's not a levantoair reader, so if one of the four of you bump into her you can let her know), for refreshing my soul a little bit during my own job search. You struck gold, but the real magic is that you focus on the most shiney parts even when some of the luster is lost. I'm happy for you.
As far as my own departure from the NFA stage, I'm not worried. My time is up, but the Levanto legacy lives on: Jack Levanto, Class of 2016; Madalyn Levanto, Class of 2019; Frank Levanto, Class of 2023.
But whene'er we see that banner,
And we watch its folds unfurl,
We will cheer for alma mater:
NFA, a priceless pearl.
And we watch its folds unfurl,
We will cheer for alma mater:
NFA, a priceless pearl.
No comments:
Post a Comment