2002 - Alice Song Weekly 宋 旻 潔 週 記

Issue:612 Date: 05/16/2002

(14) 特殊的一天
A Special Day

Days are divided by one night of stars and one light of dawn, but many exciting pieces of life are not always between these two. But sometimes this does happen, and there will be one more light in one's life who really has a name.

It was Friday on May 3rd, the Half-day Schedule, Junior Ring and coming weekend made it quite unusual. But I did not have a good start actually. It was the deadline of geometry project. Everyone put the folding projects on posters with some explanation after having enjoyed number sequence and gons in folding. Our geometry classroom is full of 17gons and 19gons. Because of the scientific principle of Simple Beauty and the human-being principle of laziness, I made a series of hexagons and 7gons. But I decorated them with some designs, some text from Elements and named it "All Beauty from Euclid". I was also going to do a presentation on Chinese drawing in art class, so I had to carry a heavy geometry book, ink, color tubes, papers, sketches, project and a paper tube downstairs after homeroom. But unfortunately, all these fell apart on the stairs, and the paper ran out of the tube, made a great mess during the rush hour for twenty seconds. Thanks to the help of SLUH boys, all this mess was finally carried into the classroom by 'seven hands and eight feet'!

But things went great after that. In the art class, I did a small presentation of Chinese drawing. My classmates passed over my sketches, and I chose 'four gentlemen', 'rocks' and 'pulling nails from mud' as my targets. I think one of the attractions of Chinese culture is that every
point can be a window to the view of Chinese concept of life, of society and of universe. For instance, we can see the ideal personality from how people chose the four gentlemen, find Yinyang philosophy from the way to draw rocks and enjoy the special contract art method from 'pulling nails from mud'. I think this twenty minutes has been a nice time for both me and my classmates.

Junior Ring ceremony started at almost one o'clock in the afternoon. First, all the juniors went on the stage of SLUH theater and signed their class banner before their parents in the audience seats. This banner would be kept up on the champel for their entire senior year proudly. After the beautiful music and readings during the mass, each junior was called up to the front and received their Junior Ring. It was a really long ceremony, but while everyone's name was called, a sense of respect grew up, and juniors received their responsibility of leading the school.

The banner was made by several juniors in one week. It went from the bottom to the top of the wall. There was the slogan of the class of 2003 on the banner:

Coming together is a beginning

Keeping together is a process

Working together is a success

'Together' is one of the most impressive words I learnt from SLUH. Many SLUH people have used the word community in their speeches, and the school spirit is shown not only in SLUH stickers and flags, but in everyone's eye as well. During Senior Award Assembly, all the seniors would stand up and clap when any senior got the awards. And the person would walk through a sea of cheering to the stage. Everyone can feel proud of being seniors, of having gone through all the happiness, hardship and success, of having been together and keeping together. It is an exciting model for all the Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors around. One day they would sit in seniors' seats, and the excitement and anxiety in the memory would make them more cheerful than ever. 'Together' is a precious word, the relationship of spending some parts of life together is one of the basics of human society. Sometimes life is just measured in the eyes of people once together.

Another popular saying was 'Take care of your community and welcome others to your community.' Many Freshmen have heard the saying 'If you see anyone eat alone at the table, invite him to your table.' Though many people joked about this that it would be really rare for one to have a whole table in this crowded cafeteria, but there is certainly a sense of self-confidence, unity and strength.

At the end of Junior Ring ceremony, Mr. Murray announced that he still had a gift to give to someone who was part of their Junior class. My name was called in front of everybody, I walked from the back to the front while everyone was clapping to receive this precious gift: a necklace with the portrait of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits . This moment is so surprising, so exciting and breathtaking, this is such a special, caring and unbelievable community.

The Junior Ring Dance started in the evening. Drew and his girlfriend Jessie found dates for all his friends. I borrowed a dark blue dress from Tizzi, dressed up in the necklace which I got that afternoon, the bracelet with STL charms from Mrs. Noblot and went to the dance with a group of friends. Mr. Murray was standing at the entrance, shaking hands with juniors, and the juniors would introduce the school and name of their dates. But I couldn't wait to be introduced, I was proud that I was the only girl who could say 'St. Louis University High School', and I have shared the thrilling spirit of SLUH during my three month school life. I thanked Mr. Murray for his gift, met Mrs. Murray at signing place, saw smiling Mr. Clark at the entrance and then was immediately swept into the atmosphere of dancing, dancing, dancing!