Senior Meditations Extend to Winter Term
Ringing bells draw students and faculty through the doors of Phillips Church. Everyone takes their seats in the pews, anticipating the personal and moving senior Meditation to come.
Each year, seniors practice the tradition of writing a meditation paper—a chance for them to reflect on their lives to the point of writing and share their personal stories with their classmates. Though almost every senior reads in their English class, 10 pieces are chosen for a reading at Phillips Church. In past years, 11 seniors delivered their meditations during spring term. However, starting this year, senior readings will take place in both the winter and spring terms, bringing the number of readers to 20.
English Instructor Todd Hearon favored the increase in read meditations. “It was a great idea because the senior meditations are the most popular, and those are the meditations that draw the largest crowds,” he said. “But we only had them in the spring, and there were only 11 spots, so opening them into the winter just meant that a larger crowd in Phillips Church could hear the meditations that people really wanted to hear.”
As a result of the extended season for senior meditations, students wrote their personal reflections during the fall term.
Moving the meditation-writing process to the fall curriculum helped to lessen the conflicts with other English material. “It’s nice to not having to squeeze a meditation in with, say, a Morrison or Melville elective,” English Instructor Matthew Miller stressed.
Miller also noted the compatibility of meditations with college applications. “The two complement each other, using college essays as a starting point for the meditation or using parts of the meditation for college essays.”
Senior Janalie Cobb expressed her frustration for having to take on meditations and college applications simultaneously. “[The college application and senior meditation] are two things that some people anticipate for a very long time—now, they are being forced to choose between them,” Cobb said.
Senior Sam Weil had similar thoughts “The best part about the senior meditations were that they were in the winter. The seniors calm down, deliver a reflection on their time at Exeter and the grade doesn’t matter,” she said.
To alleviate the challenges of simultaneous college applications and senior meditations, many teachers made an effort to help balance the workload of their students. “We staggered the meditations so they weren’t all due at the same time. Each student was sort of on their own trajectory in terms of due dates, and those were handed out in the beginning of the term so students could plan ahead,” English Instructor Chelsea Woodard said.
Despite the drawbacks, upper Julia Dobbins noted benefits to having 20 students as opposed to 10 share their papers with the community. “There are so many talented writers at Exeter, and I think that to showcase more rather than less of that talent was a good decision,” she said.
Taking into account student concerns, the English Department has floated the idea of a “pre-mediation” assignment during upper spring. “By preparing uppers for the meds before senior fall, we will give them time to think and prepare, not only during upper year but over the summer before senior year,” Hearon said. “We hope this will take a load off their shoulders when the actual meditation is taught.”
Upper JaQ Lai noted that, while the number of senior meditations has increased, the turnout will likely stay high. “The appeal of a senior meditation doesn’t come from the limited number but more from the raw quality of speaking and content and the different views of each senior,” he said. “I feel like having a larger number of meditations will not directly translate to a lower demand of mediations because each piece of writing is unique so everyone is worth hearing.”
Senior Ramayanee Mukherjee highlighted the connection forged amongst classmates through writing and reading senior meditations. “I just hope that whenever people write their meds, [they have] that same experience of connecting with a classmate [they] don’t know well.”