Moral Map Project

Frugality

Growing up during the Great Depression:

The Great Depression

"Count Your Blessings"

My great uncle was born during the Great Depression, and was very frugal and sparing with his spending. He passed that along to my mother, and eventually to me. When he passed away in 2020, my mother and I spent hours going through his old things and found a journal that he brought to boarding school where he kept track of every penny he spent.

Loyalty to Family

My great uncle was like a second grandfather to me, and was an incredibly loyal person. He loved everyone for who they were despite living in a time where all people weren’t appreciated. He served in the army and took care of his mother throughout his adult life until she passed away. He taught my mother and me to be loyal and appreciative to the important people in our lives, and I will never forget the lessons he passed down to me.

Loyalty

My great uncle and

mother in 2020

The Importance of Hard Work and Determination

My grandfather and me in 2006

Grit

My grandfather served in the Navy and was a devout Catholic. His favorite saying was "If something is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well" He instilled in my mother and me to stick to commitments, to power through when things are tough, and to always do the best work we can. I take his wise words with me in my every endeavor.

Treating Everyone as an Equal:

My grandfather and my mother

Equality

There is a story that my mother tells me about my grandfather that will stick with me forever. My grandfather was in town with my mother one day, and he saw his coworker. His coworker said to my mother, "Hi, I'm ... and I work for your dad!" My grandfather quickly corrected him and said, "No, he works with me." My grandfather was always kind to service workers in public, striking up conversations and being polite. It has resonated with me so much that when I see people being rude or condescending to someone of "lesser importance" in a workplace or a public setting, it upsets me. People should always be treated equally and with respect.

Resilience

In 2017, my father left our family. It was the most difficult time in our family's lives. Despite my mother's life and 20 years of marriage being shattered, she selflessly put my younger brother and me before herself. She has taught me how to overcome obstacles and be an empathetic person who prioritizes the wellbeing of my loved ones in their times of need.

Strength as a Single Mother

My mother is the strongest and most intelligent person I know. As an english teacher, she passed her love of literature and learning down to me. She taught me to be grateful for what I have, and to help those in need.

As a result of the things my mother has taught me, I am very empathetic to people around me and spend time volunteering and working with kids. I teach swimming lessons at the YMCA to children on scholarships and to neurodivergent children. I am always eager to lend a helping hand, and to do as much as I can for those in need.

Growing up in Poverty

My mother and father grew up very differently; my mother in a middle class household with a loving family, and my father in a lower class household with a dysfunctional family. I have grown up learning to be grateful for the priveleges I have, and knowing that I am very lucky. Hearing about my father's childhood has taught me to give to those who need it when I can. I helped to run a Christmas gift drive at my previous high school, and donate to charities when I am able.

My Hometown:

I was born in Boston, and have lived in Wrentham for my whole life. It is a mostly white, middle-class town about forty minutes from Boston with a pretty good school system. I participated in many community service programs with my school and volunteered in the town community. I was a girl scout from grades 3-8, and remember particularly loving being proud to say I was part of the Wrentham Brownie Troop #471.

Community

Socioeconomic Status

I attended a regional high school and middle school with two other towns, Norfolk and Plainville. After elementary school, the three towns combined and there were many conflicts in my school community. One of the towns was mostly lower class, and there was a lot of bullying and harassment toward the "Plainville" students. It really made me step back and think about the way people make assumptions based on a stereotype. As a thirteen year old girl, I noticed a real separation between the towns which can be applied to the whole world in general. It makes me think about the way people in this country and the government view other people based upon their socioeconomic class.

Racial Discrimination

I specifically remember the summer before I entered my freshman year, I heard a story about the football team at the high school I was about to attend. They had called a student's mother, who was African American, and harassed her with racial slurs. I was absolutely appalled and unfortunately that isn't where the stories of discrimination end from my high school experience. Students showed off their "All Lives Matter" flags on social media during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Kids I went to school with since age five proved themselves to be discriminatory, homophobic, and racist. It's instances like those that really make me wonder what the future of our country holds. I strongly believe that everyone deserves to be treated equally in every aspect of life, and I will forever hope for and do my best to make changes in this world for equality.

I have been extremely lucky in my life in regard to where I live, my family, and the opportunities that have been given to me. With privilege comes extreme responsibility. I see a lot of kids my age not appreciating what they have or using their privilege for good. I aspire to use my privilege to help others in this world. With the great privelege that I have worked hard for to come to Exeter, I will use my education in order to help make the world a better place and not waste opportunities.

Privelege

Background

- Camp Billings has been an extremely important place to my family since my grandfather went there as a child. It is a sleepaway camp in Fairlee, Vermont on a beautiful lake. It is a place that I will treasure forever.

- My mother's side of the family went to camp and eventually signed me up to go when I was seven. I stayed for two weeks my first summer, and my love for Billings began.

What Camp Means to Me

I spent the summer at CB as a camper from age 7-15, and I have been working there as a staff member since. It is a place where everyone is celebrated for who they are, no matter their differences. The "weird" kid at school could be the "cool" kid at camp. It is a place where I learned how to be unapolagetically myself, and was able to escape from the stress of school and home. I learned to step out of my comfort zone and learn new things while making lifelong friends from all over the world in the process.

Being a Counselor

As a counselor at Camp Billings, I am now able to create the place for campers to be their true selves the way I learned to. Every summer, we have an activity called country fair where the camp is separated into 8 teams. There is a theme and there are three days of competitive events between the teams ranging from athletic competitions to skits and songs written by the whole team. Everyone is celebrated for their individual talents and feel appreciated on their team.

After returning from the pandemic, many campers struggled more with anxiety and social problems than any summer before. In learning how to help campers cope with their anxiety, I realized how much there is a need for mental health advocacy among young people and adults. I founded a club at my school with a friend in 2021 called Active Minds. We heard about the national organization and decided to bring a branch of it to our school to normalize mental health struggles among young people. Camp Billings has had a huge role in forming who I am as a person today, and how I plan to help those around me.

Girls vs. Boys at Recess

Ideas Instilled in me at a Young Age

The first rivalry I remember was in elementary school at recess. Everyday in the third grade, my class would play a game called girls vs. boys which was basically tag but split between the genders. Back then as a young child, boys had "cooties" and girls always wanted to prove themselves to be stronger and better than the boys were. If girls hung out with boys and vice versa it was considered "weird".

Personal Experiences:

Distrust

• In the seventh grade, I was sexually harassed by three boys in my english class. They would brush by me on purpose, cat call me in the hallways, and try to touch me under the desks. When I brought it to my teacher's attention, he did nothing. This was the first real experience that I had that was more than just a girls vs. boys rivalry, it caused me to be distrustful.
• Later that same year, my father was disloyal to my mother and left our family. I have been dealing with the reprocussions of that instance since it happened, and it has caused me to not trust people, especially men.

Being Raised Catholic:

How I was Raised

My grandfather and great uncle on my mother's side were devout Christians throughout their entire lives, attending church every Sunday and praying every day. My mother took me to church often and I went to Sunday school until I was confirmed in the tenth grade.

I never got very invested in my faith. I went to church and learned what they taught me in CCD classes, but I never truly resonated with the things the priests would say. When I was in middle school and many of my friends began to come out as LGBTQIA+, I started to question my faith. Why should I believe what people at church say if they won't accept my frends for who they love? I am still trying to figure out what I believe, but I know that my family has been Catholic forever, and that they love everyone for who they are.

What I Believe

Love of Learning

As the daughter of an english teacher, I have always loved to learn. Whether it be reading for hours on end and telling my mother all about the books I've read and the interesting literary devices I've found, or being satisfied after finally understanding a difficult math concept. School can be difficult at times, but when I feel discouraged or stressed, I try to remember how lucky I truly am. There are so many people in this world who do not have the privelege to go to school or even learn how to read and write. I am so grateful for all of the education I have gotten in my lifetime, and I am determined to use it for good.

Throughout all of elementary and middle school, I was heavily bullied. The difficult thing about bullying is the words that stick with you for the rest of your life.

Bullying

For example, when I was in second grade, a girl told me that my curly hair was ugly and it looked like I hadn't brushed it in days. Before that, I don't think I had even realized that my hair looked any different than the other people's hair in my class. For most of elementary and middle school, I would put my hair up into a tight bun so that no one would see my "tangled-looking" hair. I could recall so many more stories like this that have stuck with me, but I try to think about how the difficult situations have helped me to become a better person and help others.

It wasn't until around my junior year of high school that I really looked forward to going to school. I struggled to be my true self in school, and wouldn't participate in fear of being wrong and teased for it. I straightened my hair and wore boring clothes to try to blend into the crowd. After having a realization, I stopped caring. I started participating actively in class even if my answer was wrong. I was extroverted in social situations and made real friends who I know will be in my life for a long time, and I truly had fun in school. As someone who has struggled with mental health and the feeling of not fitting in at school, I became part of the peer tutoring program and helped students feel seen even if they were struggling academically. I worked in the Active Minds program to let my peers know that there are resources available to them, and I always assure my younger brother in times of stress and upset that things will get better, and high school should be fun.

Finding Fun in School

Toxic Traits of Dance

Body shaming in dance is one of the most difficult things that dancers face. We stand side by side in tight clothing in front of a mirror completely exposed. I have had dance teachers tell my fellow dancers that they can see their "lunch" and to suck in their stomachs. Girls would eat little to no food in order to be thinner for dance, pass out during class, and wear sports bras tighter than they should to appear flat-chested for ballet. My previous studio had two different ballet tracks, conservatory and recreational. I was in the conservatory ballet track until age 13 when I decided to switch to prioritize vocal performance and my mental health.

Lessons I've Learned

As a result of the body shaming that comes along with dance, I've struggled with eating and body positivity for my whole life. I will never let anyone in the dance class I am in feel judged by me, always be positive about what someone is wearing, or simply not comment on what they look like. I encourage that food is fuel and you won't be able to dance as beautifully without nutrients in your body. I have learned to love dance today, and I absolutely love the dance program at Exeter.