By: Morgan Topol
While attending Governor’s School West, it’s a requirement for every student, regardless of their “Area 1” discipline, to take a 15-person class called “Area 3,” also known as “Self and Society.” Vulnerability was a key component of the class, which encouraged us to share our personal experiences and listen to others do the same.
To add necessary context, my own “Area 1” discipline was instrumental music. Other “Area 1” disciplines at Governor’s School include math, natural science, choral music and things of the like. My intense, machine-like dedication to my craft was how I’d gotten into Governor’s School at all, and it had forced my 17-year-old self to shove down the negative aspects of my life in order to be the best musician possible.
You could say “Area 3” was a stark contrast to orchestra rehearsal.
At the end of my first “Area 3” class, I went up to my instructor, Brittany Salaam, and told her I didn’t think I’d be able to be vulnerable with my classmates. I genuinely found the idea horrifying. I’d been so used to suppressing the parts of my life I’d attached shame to. How was I supposed to undo that?
Turns out, the key was in adapting to the classmates who’d been brave enough to share their experiences before me – all from different walks of life, each with their own unique perspectives to share. And it wasn’t just perspectives we shared with each other. It was also laughter, silence, tears. Some of my classmates’ stories stick with me to this day.
An interdisciplinary performance for all the 2017 Governor’s School students took place in the middle of our summer session, containing various acts that all, in some way, centered around the theme of “Home.” One of the acts within it required various “Area 3” instructors to select one student from their class to participate; specifically, a student who’d discussed something in class that fit the theme. I was chosen from my class, but I won’t tell you why – it stays in “Area 3.”
I will tell you how it worked, though. I and the other students chosen by their instructors wrote about our experiences in letters and left them in a designated mailbox. Then, the students whose “Area 1” discipline was theater took our words and wrote short scripts out of them. They made slight modifications to obscure our identities – in my case, my gender was changed, and the details were altered accordingly.
The anonymity allowed the other selected students and I to be as vulnerable as we wanted without consequence. It was an opportunity I knew I wouldn’t get again, and one I knew I wouldn’t forget. No one knew which words were mine, but it didn’t matter. I felt heard, and it was all due to the beauty of vulnerability and the power of being unknown.
I can only describe watching modified moments of my life being acted out in front of my eyes as cathartic. Strange, but cathartic. I sat, stoic, refusing to blink, my gaze glued to the two performers onstage – my words and another student’s words were being acted out side by side, impeccably choreographed and skillfully intertwined. My best friends from Governor’s School, who I still have lasting friendships with to this day, were sitting by my side as we watched from the audience.
“Was that one yours?” my friend Xan asked.
I replied with one word:
“Maybe.”
The video below isn’t from the interdisciplinary performance, but from our Final Convocation, which took place on our last day of Governor’s School. For this, I wasn’t chosen by Brittany Salaam, but by Meaghan Burke, the instructor of my musical improvisation class. Both of these women are two of the best instructors I’ve ever had, and I can confidently say they both changed my life for the better.
Those of us who were chosen to speak at our Final Convocation were tasked with asking a compelling question based on what we’d learned over the course of the summer. It was no easy task for me – I’d learned so much, and had such a great time over the course of the five-week program. But what stuck out to me most? How much I hated “Area 3” at the beginning, and how much I loved it by the end.
Below is a video from our Final Convocation. My question was inspired by “Area 3.”
