I didn’t know it then, but that experience would give me great confidence when it came to self-study (which there is a lot of in college). I learned to trust in my own abilities to teach myself, to plan and to conquer. Best of luck, and try to think of this is an opportunity for self-development and self-discipline. You may surprise yourself.
-Jeanneth Nodland ’03, Class of 2003 Reflections, p. 24
Tay & wife Emili at his 50th Class Reunion in 2019
I longed for some sense of meaning, and eventually lived in two monastic centers in Hawaii while I was struggling to find a purpose in life. I found great happiness in those environments. In one of the monastic centers, my teacher suggested that working to benefit others by reducing the suffering inherent in life was a noble and a worthwhile thing. I went from wishing to escape secular life to immersing myself in it in a way to make things better.
-Tay Bosley '69, Alumni Making Moves, p. 34
Keith Chan '96 and his family.
Everything is upside down, and now everything in the hospital is about Covid patients. Like my colleagues and teammates, we wear protective gear and have been doing procedures at the bedside of Covid-19 patients who are on ventilators. I feel that every medical worker balances anxiety and fear of being overwhelmed with sick patients with getting sick ourselves. Many of us are also anxious about bringing the disease home to our loved ones and not knowing when we ever get back to what was “normal.”
-Keith Chan, Alumni Making Moves, p. 35
Evelyn Kuong '99 performing with World Doctors Orchestra in Paris
I do not view the weeks I spent away from my family while I worked on the “dirty team” as a sacrifice, but rather, my way of contributing to the fight. Just as the rest of Hong Kong contributed by wearing masks and staying home. This is the perfect illustration of how humans rally together to take care of each other in times of crisis. Individual freedoms may have been temporarily sacrificed and our lives turned upside down, but our society turned out stronger and healthier.
-Evelyn Kuong '99, Alumni Making Moves, p. 36
Roy and colleague YH Gan in the IT lair.
I care for my staff, and so if they don’t sleep, I don’t sleep. I want to serve them as well. Working in a school, you always have to learn new things. When we got back [after Chinese New Year], we were in a bit of a shock that school would be closed and kids wouldn’t be here. But we had to have a platform where teachers can teach. We had looked into Zoom back in November because of the protests in Hong Kong when we had to close school for a week. So we implemented it [for home learning], but continued to change it, as we looked at the security settings that can give the most secure online learning for our kids.
-Roy Bas '94, Milestones, p. 39
Covid-19 hits us hard as a species because of our interconnectedness. Isolation is a requisite part of the response to the pandemic: isolation of patients by infection control measures in hospitals, limiting family visitors at times of our greatest need for a loved one’s hand to hold, isolation of elderly parents from their communities, social distancing, quarantines, lockdowns, closed borders.
