Senior essays

ESSAYS BY THE OUTGOING CLASS OF 2022

Madison Cinalli

Soup has consistently been my answer to the age old question, “What’s your favorite food?” I frequently receive the stink eye from most people for being too “basic” or “typical” with my choice but my reasoning is mundane: it’s a comfort food. That is nothing less than the truth. However, it boils to a complexity in my mind.  The saltiness and sometimes even creaminess paired with the fresh flavors… Read More

Max Gilyutin

In December of 2019, as a member of the Israel Lacrosse Winter Service Trip, I visited both Auschwitz and Birkenau.  My experience touring these spaces was one of the deepest and most meaningful of my life.  While I still cannot begin to imagine the monstrosities that my ancestors experienced during the Holocaust, it was an extremely significant, though haunting, experience to walk down… Read More

Zoe Mai

“You’re going to lose,” my brother said, as I anxiously watched him place down his second to last card. I looked at my cards and realized I didn’t have the colors that matched the one my brother put down. Leaving it up to chance, I went to draw a card from the pile, hoping I would pick up a +4 card as it was my last shot at redemption. And there it was, my golden card, the card that would boost… Read More

Victoria Biordi

As a young girl, my mom always imposed the same lessons on me. She always tried to demonstrate that I should never let anyone silence me and make me feel as though my opinion is not as important. My mother is a very vocal and hardworking woman who allowed me to learn from her example. Throughout my years of dancing competitively, she always encouraged me to use my voice and… Read More

Jenna Colleran

Not everything that happens is my fault and that not everything happens for a reason. This is important because over the past year a lot has been going on with me and I always am a strong believer that everything happens for a reason. For example, I was diagnosed with a disease called limbic encephalitis. People may ask how it occurred? How did I get this disease? But the real answer is… Read More

Karolina Horn

I pulled the old rusty pot from the oven, placed it on the stovetop, and filled it halfway with Carolina rice. It made me chuckle every time I saw the familiar orange and brown label. I shared the same name as a bag of rice…. how ironic. I filled the pot with water, eyeballing the measurement while remembering what I was taught by my grandfather.  I dipped my finger into the water to make sure that the… Read More

Sophie Haber

Barnes & Noble is my happy place. When I open the doors to my local store, I’m greeted by familiar faces: Shakespeare, Aristotle, Homer, Mozart, all depicted drinking their Starbucks coffee on the café wall. I first stop by the stationary section to look at pens before heading over to browse the newest arrivals–each pick representing the possibility of a new Sophie. Browsing guidebooks, I’m a traveler in… Read More

Ehidiamen Alfred Akhere

“The great Iroko tree has fallen!” In Nigerian folklore, this great hardwood tree embodies the stability of a family, and its ability to withstand the storms that life has to offer. Beneath its powerful timbre, the spirits of our ancestors freely roam, providing generations that follow with nature’s logic and secrets. Unrecognized by those before me, the root of our very foundation was damaged by… Read More

Isabella Youssef

Published in 1978 was the Dr Suess book, ‘I Can Read With My Eyes Shut’. Ironically at the age of three I was able to do just that. It wasn’t that I had magical telepathy powers or anything, I just learned to memorize the words my father spoke to me as he read the book. So I was able to shut my eyes and recite the story word for word. Reading was a passion of mine for the longest time. I was… Read More

Fabian Apicella

“You will never be…” was a common term I heard growing up. You will never be as tall as your dad. You will never be a homerun hitter. These are phrases that were constantly used in reference to my height, which you might think is not a big deal. Worse things have been said to a child. This struck me differently because from a very young age baseball became a huge part of my life. Playing baseball is… Read More

Visaal Ieeman

I exist in fiction. Harry Potter. Dead Poets Society. Boy Meets World. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I have always envied these fictional protagonists, craving a life like theirs. Sure, their lives weren’t perfect but they got an adventure out of it. Maybe that’s what I crave — an adventure. Before the pandemic, I had a pretty solid life. I knew I had to wake up at 5 AM every morning, take the MTA to school, worry… Read More

Daniel Kogan

What is the cost of lies? There comes a point where if enough lies are told, we perceive them as the truth. When lies are wrongfully accepted and the truth falters, the results are potentially calamitous. Nowhere else had the cost of lies become more discernible than on the morning of April 26, 1986, in the Ukrainian SSR. As a result of a vast series of lies, the Chernobyl disaster has amounted to… Read More

Nick Desena

“That’s why there are erasers on pencils.” My grandfather had a few choice phrases in his arsenal that always managed to sneak their way into our conversations. Whether I spoke with him about baseball, school, friends, or anything else, he always used specific “catchphrases” that he still uses to this day. It was when my family chose to move from our home – the only home I had ever known – that… Read More

Jocelyn Diaz

“Fake it ‘til you make it,” has never been a more helpful phrase until the summer before senior year, my first year working at Camp Aquehonga. After an exhausting week of setting up the entire camp–setting up tents, fixing tent platforms, setting up both of my areas for aquatics and where I would be sleeping for the next seven weeks–I was told by my area director that I would be teaching… Read More