E.S.

Elizabeth Strumba

“Community as a place makes me think of the teachers. Students come and go, but the teachers are the lifeblood of Community. They shape the coerces, the environment, and culture. The way they teach and act has a massive impact, and I’ll always admire them, and enjoy the memories of those classes. Outside of class material, I’ve learned how to be more confident in my image, and how to express myself in different ways. I feel that the environment that Community, and especially my friend group, has created is very welcoming and accepting, which made it easier for me to feel comfortable experimenting with how I dress, exploring different forms of self-expression, and questioning my identity. While I’m still unsure about what the future holds, I’d say I’m a lot more excited for it. There are plenty of things that cause me anxiety, but there are a lot more that I’m looking forward to after high school. But on a smaller scale, I’m not as anxious about things… freshman year I had difficulties walking down the hallway during passing times, because they were so crowded and it gave me anxiety to the point of feeling physically unwell. I ended up either rushing to class as soon as possible or being a couple minutes late, because that was easier than walking through the crowded hallway. Now I am a lot more comfortable with people, and I’ve learned how to manage my anxiety better. Figuring out when to space out walking to my next class isn’t even something that I take into consideration. I also think I’m a lot happier as a person, I have a good group of friends, and Community has a very positive environment that I definitely feel rubbed off on me in a good way.”

A.T.AVA TIEDEMANN

“My favorite class I’ve taken is Philosophy with Sean Eldon. I really liked the discussions that we had and hearing the insight from other people is so interesting. I originally took the class because I thought it was psychology originally, but I ended up keeping with it and I really am glad I did it. It wasn’t the first time that I took a class by accident, it happened to me this semester where I took poetry last year. This year it was advertised as creative writing and I ended up taking the class again. It was a little annoying and I didn’t really love the poetry class but it ended up being fun taking it for the second time.”