Solomon Stern

Friends’ Central School

When I was younger, in lower and middle school, I was often told that I had “only child energy.” I tried not to get offended, because I am an only child, but this term still frustrated me. Probably because it was true. I was a little entitled, a little too loud, and to be honest, I wasn’t funny enough to be that loud.

Anyway, throughout my time in high school, I’ve noticed that people have been telling me this less and less. Often, they go to the next best thing, which is “younger sibling energy,” and I at least appreciate the step up. Recently, I was wondering what changed. How did I go from acting like an only child to acting like a sibling? Then I realized that it was because I found my siblings here, at Friends’ Central. I found a second family. I found people whom I look up to, people who inspired me to change for the better.

Hannah Seidel-Nini

Friends’ Central School

I think the most important thing Friends Central has taught us is how to care for one another. It taught us that community is not something that appears automatically, but something that is built every day through small choices. A greeting, an invitation, an apology, a conversation, a kindness, a willingness to listen. Love is often described as something dramatic. But the love that changes lives is usually much quieter than that. It exists in the small moments. The moments that seem ordinary while they’re happening.

The moments that, years later, usually at graduations, turn out to have stuck with us the most.