BIKING ABROAD

Ruthie Saar ’22 and her mom, Julie Schottenstein Saar ’84, visit Blenheim Palace. Ruthie Saar ’22 poses at Blenheim Palace.

Ruthie Saar ’22 follows her mother’s European biking trip for Senior May Program

During her junior year at CSG, Ruthie Saar ’22 happened to discover a journal from her mother, Julie Schottenstein Saar ’84, detailing her month-long biking journey in 1981 through much of Europe.

“I read the entire thing in one sitting and knew that one day I wanted to redo the trip,” Saar said.

The CSG graduate didn’t have to wait long for her opportunity. For her Senior May Program, Saar and her mother visited Europe and France this past school year to recreate the trip her mother made over 40 years ago. Though the trip was three weeks long this time around and smaller in scope, Saar said the experience taught her many valuable lessons.

“I learned more about myself and how to challenge my comfort levels, especially when it came to biking up to 60 miles each day,” she said. “Learning to be comfortable with the uncomfortable is something I continue to teach and reteach myself.”

Saar had already decided in Form IX that she wanted her May Program project to be based on something that she wouldn’t typically have time to do—something that she might regret not doing once she was older. So as a Form XII student, she began to discuss the logistics of her trip with Dr. Emily Krichbaum, who as the Director of the Center for Girls’ and Young Women’s Leadership leads the Senior May Program.

“I immediately said that my mom should join me so that she would have the chance to recreate her trip, but with new perspectives and a little more wisdom,” Saar said.

During the summer before her sophomore year at CSG, Julie Schottenstein Saar spent a month abroad, biking through England, France, Belgium, and Holland. Ruthie Saar recreated that trip on a smaller scale, visiting England and France for the first time.

As Saar and her mother biked to and from landmarks across the two countries, Saar learned the importance of going with the flow. Throughout the trip she tried to be more relaxed and flexible, something she also had been working toward while managing a challenging course load at CSG. Saar appreciated CSG’s understanding and helpful teachers, who were able to create a calming environment in their classrooms. At school, Saar learned that her anxiety about receiving high marks on her assignments wasn’t constructive. She found being flexible was necessary, both at school and during the trip abroad with her mother. The two often had to make last-second decisions, such as deciding where to eat in the evenings or quickly hopping off subways and determining the correct course of travel.

“This lesson helped me understand that I’m not always going to have every detail of my day or my job planned out, and that I can take things as they come rather than overthinking and overplanning,” she said.

While Saar learned valuable lessons during her trip, she also was able to apply skills she learned at CSG.

“I genuinely believe that CSG has not only prepared me to take on the world, but also to do so independently,” she said. “CSG has given me the confidence, strength, and grace to live my life to the fullest, and I will always remember the impact growing up at the school has had on me.”

Ruthie Saar ’22 takes a breather during a 47-mile ride from Oxford to Stratford-upon Avon.