Meditation Spotlight: Sheala Iacobucci
By CATHERINE WU
Q: What was the main focus of your meditation?
A: The main focus was my relationship with my sisters and growth and how that’s improved. Going in, I knew that I wanted to write a story about my relationship with my siblings because that’s something that I think about a lot and I think has influenced my life and the way I view things. I included the scene in my meditation from this summer when I went to a place…and I saw flowers. I thought, “Man, that’d be a good image.”
Q: Could you give a brief summary of your meditation?
A: I talk about my relationship with my extended family and the way I’ve kind of viewed myself through their eyes, the way I’ve viewed my relationship with my sisters through their eyes, and the way I’ve kind of stopped doing that.
“The main focus was my relationship with my sisters and growth and how that’s improved.”
Q: Was there someone or something that you were inspired by?
A: I guess the first thing that I think of is the first meditation I ever heard, which was during my prep year, and the first senior meditation was Sam Weil’s. She wrote about body image as well, and that was the first time I’ve ever heard someone [of] a high school age speak publicly about it. She also starts and ends with an image. They’re very different, but I guess that was sort of something I was thinking about.
Q: Could you elaborate a little bit more about the image that you had in your meditation?
A: I started my meditation [by] talking about these daylilies that grow on the shore at my aunt’s house. These flowers only last a day, and I kind of compare them with tiger lilies, which are just a different type of lily, and they’re very similar, but I think the difference is that in planning tiger lilies, you can kind of regenerate them for a while. They grow bulbs. I thought that was kind of just a nice subtle difference.
Q: Is there an intended audience for your story?
A: I didn’t really write it with anyone in mind. But I think if there was an audience, it might be people who have had similar experiences to what I wrote about.
Q: Was there anyone along the way who supported you in your writing?
A: My friend Lila Busser who graduated last year. I shared a Google Doc with them and they were the first person that read my meditation. I think it was nice to have someone removed from the situation who I could trust — but also someone who I know is strong at writing — read it before anyone here did.
“When you’re writing about something so personal or something that’s such a big part of your life, it’s okay to not have an ending to it.”
Q: What advice would you want to share with other students who will be writing their meditations in the future?
A: In a meditation, there’s so much pressure on it for it to be your “thesis about life” or a “here’s why I’ve taken away from life so far.” And it doesn’t have to be that. First of all, it’s literally just whatever you want. Mine ends with a question, literally, because I think when you’re writing about something so personal or something that’s such a big part of your life, it’s okay to not have an ending to it or not actually know the full takeaway. In a way, you’ll never know the full takeaway about your relationship with your family or whatever is big enough to write about. So it’s good to ask questions. It’s okay to ask questions. I used that a lot in my meditation, and I think it’s just a good thing to know.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add or shoutouts?
A: I’d like to shout out Mr. Perdomo. He was my English teacher, and I think he chose really good meditations for us to use as our reference. That was the homework — reading the different meditations — and I think he chose a good selection. He’s also someone who does not require any guidelines at all, which is helpful. I got a lot of freedom to just take my story where I wanted it to.
