Eleven Seniors to Present Meditations This Spring

Every year, seniors spend their winter term reflecting upon their past while writing the ultimate personal narrative: a meditation. During the spring term, several senior meditations are selected to be shared during the weekly Wednesday Meditation block. This year, seniors Will Li, Dana Tung, Molly Bolan, Monica Acosta, Hannah Graham, Lily Brown, Morgan Burrell, Katherine Ying, Alice McCrum, Zoha Qamar and Max Le have been chosen to read their meditations.

With no attached prompt, the senior meditations are an opportunity for seniors to explore different parts of their identity as they write a long personal narrative presented to their class. Students are able to delve into their personal story with literary freedom, learning not only about themselves, but also about their peers in the process.

“I was really happy that I got the chance to share that story with everyone, because it’s a part of my identity that a lot of people don’t know or don’t know very deeply.”

The Meditation Selection Committee, which decides which meditations are to be read in Philips Church, is composed of ten members, all from the English and Religion departments. After negotiating and discussing the choices that each member nominated as their top meditation, the committee narrowed the approximate 80 submitted meditations down to 11. There are many factors that the committee considers while deciding which meditations will be read.

School Minister and committee member Robert Thompson said that while they look for beautifully written pieces, a beautifully written piece may not be a story that needs to be heard in the church setting. Because of the spoken presentation medium, the meditations also must be captivating auditorily. “We have to anticipate how it is going to read. Something that looks good on paper may not listen well,” Thompson said.

English instructor and Meditation Program Director Todd Hearon said that aside from looking for compelling stories, the committee also looks for a range of themes and voices. “We try our best to allow the chosen 11 to represent something of the wide range of the meditations we receive. We are trying each year to set a varied season,” Hearon said.

For each of the chosen 11 seniors, the meditation process struck different chords.

One of the 11 students chosen, Ying, said, “Meditations are unique in their individuality of purpose. What it meant for me to write a meditation and what I hoped to achieve in doing so is distinct from my neighbor.”

For Ying, the meditation was a way to free facets of herself into a concrete form of writing. “I thought of [my meditation] as the distilling and releasing of self. It was the reconciliation of the parts of me I am least and most proud of in a contained, yet public, context,” Ying said.

Li, who was the first to present a meditation this term, also saw his meditation as a cathartic process. Throughout his time at Exeter, Li had been contemplating what to write his meditation about. After a slow culmination of smaller conversations about his mother and his relationship with her, Li realized during his upper winter that he had never gotten to know his mother, who passed away. Li said he used his meditation as a way to start a conversation with his father about his mother, as well as a way to release his emotions. “It was a way for me to put that feeling and that experience onto paper,” Li said.

For Tung, the meditation gave her the chance  to look closer into her own life and reflect on what was truly meaningful to her. “It was indeed a challenging process, but after talking to my parents and grandparents, I learned to trace down the details and moments that sparked and altogether stood for something valuable to me,” Tung said.

Qamar found that writing her meditation and sorting through her feelings was therapeutic. Because the meditation was the only graded writing assignment of Qamar’s winter term, she was able to really let herself dive into the piece.

“I had a lot of thoughts, ideas, feelings and memories regarding what my meditation was about. For me to be able to let them all out, not just for my meditation, but for myself, was really nice,” Qamar said.

Qamar said that as a senior at Exeter, there is much to process and reflect upon, whether or not you began prep year or later on. Meditations are an outlet in that process of reflection. “People have a lot of ideas and concepts that they wrestle with that they never really are able to put into words, or never feel the need to put into words,” Qamar said. “Writing a meditation doesn’t solve everything, but it helps you reflect on things that you may not normally reflect on.”

Meditations also hold significance in their impact on the community as a whole. Thompson sees the weekly meditations as “profoundly religious,” and that they are spiritual experiences in the way that Exeter defines religion, as a connecting or coming together. The community members who attend the meditations have an opportunity to be connected to the giver of the meditation, while the writers are able to connect with themselves. 

Ying also commented on the sense of community that a meditation allows, specifically in an individual English class.

“There’s a profound sense that your community of listeners is seeking clarity as much through the writing of their own meditations as they are through the experiencing of yours. Altogether, through that exchange of initiative, plenty of communal appreciation and insight evolves,” Ying said.

Brown, another selected reader, also agreed that the meditations are a way of connecting, as well as a reminder of humanity. “In a place like [Exeter], where everyone gets so caught up in their individual lives, it’s a cool experience to take thirty minutes out of your day and join together on the same wavelength,” Brown said.

Li said that he was grateful to have heard other people’s stories. After learning through their meditations that some of his best friends have had suicidal thoughts, Li felt that his understanding was stronger.

“It defines a part of them or a part of their past, and it’s something that I want to honor about them and want to remember when I interact with them,” Li said.

Although Li was nervous and hadn’t expected such a packed audience, the experience of presenting his meditation was an important highlight in his Exeter career. “It’s extremely humbling that a lot of people came out and supported me. I was really happy that I got the chance to share that story with everyone, because it’s a part of my identity that a lot of people don’t know or don’t know very deeply,” Li said.