During the past year, Figueroa Mountain Road was the most publicized country road in the entire world. With Michael Jackson gone, and Neverland abandoned, hundreds of pilgrims continue to travel to Los Olivos and pay homage. They search in hopes of finding answers to life’s essential questions, when, of course there is no holy grail to be found behind the locked gate.
More than a few confused, lost, weary, discouraged and disillusioned travelers find themselves meandering over to our side of the road to cross our bridge. Irritated and impatient, one may stand before me and ask, “Where is Neverland? I can’t see it…” It is then that I look deeply into the eyes of this lost soul and with a hint of impatience say… “You are on the wrong side of the road, this is Everland… this is EV-ER-LAND…” and…as if to prove my point …a rumbling noise from Upper Yard gets louder, and a dust cloud gathers and rapidly descends upon us. Just then, out of nowhere, William, Gus, Kyle, Inochi, and Beau, all apparently hanging onto to William’s go-cart, rain coat, or long hair….appear… and fly by and down the creek…
It is Everland, where Nico gives a weather report while someone pets his rabbit. In the background, Miranda recites Shakespeare and Hyemin translates poetry.
It is Everland where the food is home grown; Heather is nearby serving desserts or pancakes, and Libang, dressed in his soccer uniform and wearing red cleats, eats all the leftovers from the garden. It is Everland where Yuchen and Zhi stand by reassuringly and Tammy encourages everyone to play their hearts out for Everland….Ah yes!…Everland…
2,860 acres for-EVER preserved... a Mid-LAND for students and adults, where Grass Mountain is timeless and the place is sacred to the Chumash. It is this side of the road where a student finds a teacher… who has an idea or a thesis….a Midland where teenagers trust adults and where they have jobs to do and they do them.…where students learn the difference between self reliance and self indulgence…. where they want to belong and need to belong as they direct themselves towards college.
Jill Redl might add that Midlanders practice failing better… and better all the time….and in the process faculty and students learn to be themselves and find themselves.
Our Everland experience is something we find at Midland and take with us. We hold it close like the important relationships that have shaped us.
In Robore Virtus, in the Oak there is strength…and there is strength and playfulness in the class of 2010…. We started the year with Storm Jameson’s words, and I end today with this message to these seniors, these Oaks, who are about to face the challenges that certainly lie ahead.
On challenge Jameson says:
I believe that only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present. Most of us spend 59 minutes an hour living in the past, with regret for lost joys, or shame for things badly done (both utterly useless and weakening)-or in a future which we either long for or dread. Yet the past is gone beyond prayer, and every minute you spend in the vain effort to anticipate the future is a moment lost. There is only one world, the world pressing against you at this minute. There is only one minute in which you are alive, this minute-here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what it is –a miracle and unrepeatable.
I trust that every minute at Midland is a miracle; face this life knowing that you have lived at Everland… and you are always…right where you want to be…