Side Character Chronicles

Caroline Luttrull

Everyone has their own story— their own characters, their own beginnings.

Who am I in your story? A chapter?

(Or a footnote?)

Am I the side character to provide a comforting shoulder or be comedic relief?

Do I make it to the ending?

Artwork by Blessen Jolobi (right) and Reagan Nisbet, Alexine Stewart, Mary Roper, Mary Alice Pierce, Maggie Petty, and Lillian Yarbrough

(clockwise from upper left, above)

We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience and humility.

- C.S. Lewis

From: At Thanksgiving

Sarah Jean Caver

My story may read differently than yours, but I believe being a Harpeth Hall girl is not just a title we share in common. We are taught by the same teachers, read the same books, and wear the same plaid while still holding individual hearts and minds. We have been battered by different battles, but we all come out a little more patient and humble each time. This can be the one thought that you share around your Thanksgiving dinner table this year—and what I can remind myself of when I see the empty chair at mine. My brother’s loss brings me an unimaginable amount of sadness; it is "the bad" that C.S. Lewis speaks of that I must carry. But when I see your faces, I am reminded of the letters I’ve saved for three and a half years, the orchid that dwindled but whose sentiment remains, and the wave of understanding that still pours over me. I hope no one ever has to endure a grief such as mine to experience and notice that this is a community of understanding and care. I ultimately wish to leave this school a better place than I found it, but you beat me to it Harpeth Hall. You have already made me better than I was when I came. Of course, when I entered this place beloved, I had no idea what would happen to my family or that I would gain another because of it, for you are a family of mine now. Yours are the arms that wrap around me to remind me that I have never been alone in this journey, and that is what I am grateful for this Thanksgiving.