If you walk past the Penikese Island School Office in Woods Hole, you'll see the old school motto on the sign. Penikese: An Island of Healing. It truly is, and that was exactly what we needed this fall.
You see, for many students and teachers alike, fall comes in like a cold shiver. For Project Vine this year, it was much harder than that.
One of our seniors is gone. We didn’t know when we said good-bye in the spring that we meant good-bye forever. We are a small learning community and Martha's Vineyard is a small island, really, and when a part of something small is missing, that smallness is magnified. It’s a ratio thing, I believe.
Davin will always be a part of this weird little family, and we’ll cherish his contributions, though we would have vastly preferred to cherish him instead.
And, to be as honest as possible, the tremendous energy that it takes to come back from the summer, to light our own fires each morning in the hopes that we kindle someone else’s enthusiasm, I for one just didn’t have it after we lost Davin. And I am sorry for the messy, sometimes confusing start to the year that that probably resulted in for many of our kids and for our staff.
But through that painful, hazy fog of early September, when I started to believe that maybe what we’re doing isn’t working, isn’t benefiting these kids, we somehow still planned the Penikese Retreat. That task isn’t easy, and took the hard work and extra efforts of so many people in and out of MVRHS, and for that let me please say thank you.
The last week of September, 17 of our students along with Joel Graves, Ellen Muir and I, spent 3 days and 2 nights out at Penikese, without phones, with limited running water and no electric light. Glorious, right? We cooked, ate and cleaned together, learning about the Island’s history, doing team challenges, playing games, fishing and taking in the Island and the ocean all around. Was it serene and rejuvenating at every moment? No- of course there was drama when 17 teenagers have no distractions but each other. But was it mindful and meaningful? It was. Were there a hundred moments or more when I found myself talking to a student and learning something about them I had never known before? You bet. Did they learn something about themselves and each other? Definitely. Everything from history lessons to ghost stories to how to slice a tomato.
There is a saying carved above the door of an old, mostly destroyed building on the walk up from the dock at Penikese Island. It reads, “THE PLACE TO BE IS WHERE YOU ARE.” I couldn’t agree more. We are here, and I am so thankful to be a part of the lives of our students and to be here for those who need us.
Our Penikese Island Retreat represents Project Vine’s work all year, but distilled into around 52 hours. It’s a feeling of being disconnected from the rest of the world but connected together, learning about each other while learning about life---it’s about being there, with each other, with ourselves.
Please enjoy some of the photographs taken by staff and students on the Island this time around, and please accept my deep thanks for your continued support of our weird little family!
You see, for many students and teachers alike, fall comes in like a cold shiver. For Project Vine this year, it was much harder than that.
One of our seniors is gone. We didn’t know when we said good-bye in the spring that we meant good-bye forever. We are a small learning community and Martha's Vineyard is a small island, really, and when a part of something small is missing, that smallness is magnified. It’s a ratio thing, I believe.
Davin will always be a part of this weird little family, and we’ll cherish his contributions, though we would have vastly preferred to cherish him instead.
And, to be as honest as possible, the tremendous energy that it takes to come back from the summer, to light our own fires each morning in the hopes that we kindle someone else’s enthusiasm, I for one just didn’t have it after we lost Davin. And I am sorry for the messy, sometimes confusing start to the year that that probably resulted in for many of our kids and for our staff.
But through that painful, hazy fog of early September, when I started to believe that maybe what we’re doing isn’t working, isn’t benefiting these kids, we somehow still planned the Penikese Retreat. That task isn’t easy, and took the hard work and extra efforts of so many people in and out of MVRHS, and for that let me please say thank you.
The last week of September, 17 of our students along with Joel Graves, Ellen Muir and I, spent 3 days and 2 nights out at Penikese, without phones, with limited running water and no electric light. Glorious, right? We cooked, ate and cleaned together, learning about the Island’s history, doing team challenges, playing games, fishing and taking in the Island and the ocean all around. Was it serene and rejuvenating at every moment? No- of course there was drama when 17 teenagers have no distractions but each other. But was it mindful and meaningful? It was. Were there a hundred moments or more when I found myself talking to a student and learning something about them I had never known before? You bet. Did they learn something about themselves and each other? Definitely. Everything from history lessons to ghost stories to how to slice a tomato.
There is a saying carved above the door of an old, mostly destroyed building on the walk up from the dock at Penikese Island. It reads, “THE PLACE TO BE IS WHERE YOU ARE.” I couldn’t agree more. We are here, and I am so thankful to be a part of the lives of our students and to be here for those who need us.
Our Penikese Island Retreat represents Project Vine’s work all year, but distilled into around 52 hours. It’s a feeling of being disconnected from the rest of the world but connected together, learning about each other while learning about life---it’s about being there, with each other, with ourselves.
Please enjoy some of the photographs taken by staff and students on the Island this time around, and please accept my deep thanks for your continued support of our weird little family!