Droplets (Connecting our Watershed to the World

DROPLETS

Connecting to the world beyond our watershed

Excerpt: Journal Entry, June 11th by Jack Mahoney

As we walked through the woods looking for good spots to nest in the future, we gradually lost track of time and lost ourselves in the woods. As we wandered from the KAC woods to the pond’s woods all the way to the woods behind the ropes course, we all forgot about our phones, as if we had left them in the classroom. We swung on a rope, threw a tire onto a tall wooden pole, and balanced on logs that ran along the path. At one point, I led the group down a path so dense with bushes that all eight of them refused to call it a path, but at the end of the path sat a small clearing, all the way to the top of the forest. As we stood in the clearing, rain fell, completely soaking my sweatshirt. I checked my watch and realized almost 90 minutes had passed, so we began to walk back to the main campus. When we got to Irwin, the food tasted better than it ever had. Something about freely walking around campus getting covered with rain made our return to Irwin feel like reaching an island in an ocean.

Your heart beats too in painted skies I' m Moonshot

You are my start line The warmth of summer does not suffice Until illuminated with fireflies

I’d part the sky nebulous, dusk, lavender afterglow, If you couldn’t see the stars

[ H a i k u a t t h e W a t e r s h e d ] L a u r e n K i m

Reflection / A Water Crisis is a Problem for All Mustafe Osman

Millions of people in the developing world, including where I’m from in Somalia, do not have access to clean water or sanitation. People spend up to seven hours every single day just to collect water. Young children choose between having an education and having water that they need to survive. Can you imagine what that would be like?

It is a pressing environmental and social issue that millions of people spend time securing this basic human right. In the developing world, for example in Somalia, women and children spend millions of hours walking to fetch water from wells for their families. On average, women and children in the developing world walk around 3.7 miles for water. That is almost 15 laps around the Lawrenceville football field just to get clean water. Can you do that?

People in developing countries walk that much just to have water and they do not take it for granted. What if you had to choose between having water and having a job to survive? What if you did not have time to study at Lawrenceville because you were too busy worrying about this basic human right of access to clean water. The water crisis is still a problem in the US too. For example in Flint, Michigan, the contamination of lead and Legionella in water affected millions of people and that crisis lasted almost four years. At Lawrenceville, we use around 165 thousand gallons of water each day, which is around 2 millions gallons of water each year.As the community of the Lawrenceville school, we should see water as if it's part of our community, and we should not take it for granted. Be grateful for its usage and the value it brings to our community.

Interlude: Infinity Run by Lauren Kim (A Journal Entry, transformed)

The puddles of rain inside Irwin are always dripping from us. The loud, echoing shouts are always a sign that we have arrived. The bicycles strewn across the lawn, the thud of the added weight in our fatigued footsteps, and the momentary sighs across the dining hall; all signs that the Leopold Scholars have arrived postadventure.

I’m sure that going into this program, none of us expected to trek through the woods in the pouring rain for an hour and a half, pushing through bushes and trees until the leaves became more abundant than the sky. Or that “stream stomping” was not only an aquatic journey for the waders, but also an all-terrain scene filled with the eight of us jumping, ducking, and occasionally falling over trees, rocks, and everything in between.

Yet the thing is, none of our expeditions were one time deals. The remnants of our feats lingered over us in the form of soaking wet clothes, dirt covered appendages, and lots of sweat.

The reality is that these expeditions were far from over, because they each spilled into the next, blending and weaving into a long, ongoing spectacle. Our entrances into Irwin, the frames of a closing shot, could only really be defined as a momentary change of pace, a temporary time of reflection, an interlude.

Remembering by Alexis Gonzalez

The small liquid splash escapes the soft purple exocarp Exposing the sweet taste of natural sugar onto my tongue. The surprising hint of sourness Awakens my fretful memories.

Drenching in my salted sweat Under the blinding heat from the sun, Cotton filling my mouth, desperate for water. I cut the bright green stalk Disconnecting the grapes from its vines, Remembering my ancestors' fight for their lives, As I continued to return to my dying light.

Begging for the forbidden clear fluid I lift my sunbacked hands To clasp the dark round fruit Straight to my mouth. The cooling sensation of liquid sugar Hitting my dried lips, replenishes my past memories of comfort and delight.

One jar With all of us in it The sky is our lid

We aren’t superior When the sky sees us the way we see ants Insignificant

I don’t know his story He doesn’t know mine But he lands on my arm And I realize we’re both alive

[Haiku at the Watershed] Nushana Huq