The following essay was written by a former IB camper, Emma Thacker. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:
I wrote my college essay about Farm and Wilderness. I think it represents my love for the organization and something great that I took from it: My appreciation of silence.
I wish I was a Quaker. They got the world right. I mean, at least in one way, but that one way is big.
Quakers have morning meeting. For six summers at Farm and Wilderness, I sat among a group of people in complete silence, left with only the voices of my thoughts and the atmosphere around me. Monday through Saturday, it was for fifteen minutes; on Sunday, an hour.
It wasn’t always easy for me. At the age of ten, my sitting for even fifteen minutes without speaking was a challenge. I would sit with friends, silently giggling about this and that, making patterns in the grass, and using sign language to communicate secretly…or so we thought. Up until I was about eleven or twelve, I dreaded Silent Meeting, and while I was there I just counted the minutes until it would end.
But, by my third or fourth summer at Farm and Wilderness, something in me clicked. Instead of dreading the silence, I came to welcome it with a clear mind. I realized that silence gave me time to think about anything I wanted to, without any self-consciousness. I thought about things as profound as death; about how beautiful the world can be; about how lucky I am and about how I may not deserve such luck. But, other times, instead of thinking, I would meditate and try to relieve my mind and body of all stress.
I would glance around at the people surrounding me; all silent, too, isolated in their thoughts, hopes and aspirations. And while I fell into my own individual thoughts, I always felt as if I were a part of something. A community that screamed in silence.
It’s so unusual to be surrounded by people who have the exact same agenda as you. It’s so unusual to feel as if you’re in a place with people who are all there for the same reason. No one is racing to get anywhere or taking a phone call; there is nothing to distract you except your own thoughts. There was something so comforting about that for me. Morning meeting provided a place for me to escape from the pressures of everyday life and to just be.
I miss it. Of all the things I miss about my Farm and Wilderness summers, Silent Meeting is definitely the ritual that I long to return to most.
“Silence is golden.” We’ve all heard that before. But the saying rings true. In the right places, silence can bring separate people together in ways nothing else can.
Quakers certainly had it down.
Thanks Emma, for allowing me to share this.
Happy New Year!
Peace,
Amy