Reflections from a 15-Year Senior

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Emma Hing is a senior who’s been on campus longer than most freshmen have been alive. Her dad, Mr. Hing, teaches photography at Williston and she lives a stone’s throw away from the gym. She will be attending NYU’s Kanbar Institute of Film & Television in the Tisch School of the Arts, class of 2017. 

by Emma Hing ’13

The countdown has already begun, senioritis has claimed many victims, and with spring in the air we are getting ready to graduate. But what does it mean: to graduate? To me it means leaving home, and not just Williston as a classroom, or a team, or even as a group of friends, it means leaving the place where I grew up.

I moved to Williston when I was not yet three years old and I grew up going to shows at the theater, playing with kids in the dorms, and wandering campus before I could ride a bike. To most people Williston has become home, but for me it has been the only home I have ever really known.

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The Library Tile Tournament

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By Brendan Hellweg ’14

Friendly competition is a hallmark of Williston society; from Wildcat teams and club sports like Ultimate Frisbee to the occasional academic rivalry, we’re rife with the competitive spirit. A new outlet for this mindset has sprung up, one that has drawn dozens of students to the library to show their skills at the age old game – Scrabble. Student vocabularies are put to the test as the boys’ and girls’ teams face off in increasingly close matches.

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Williston’s “Friendly” New Neighbor

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by Brendan Hellweg

Since 2002, when the Friendly’s that was located in the Reed Center was replaced with a school-owned facility, the Stu-Bop, alums and current students alike have clamored for Friendly’s to open a new location so that students can get their sundae fix between classes. After 11 years of this pressure, the school has brokered a deal with Friendly’s Ice Cream, LLC to construct a restaurant on campus. Due to the success of the Stu-Bop, a new location has been proposed that would not compete so directly with the store: the Robert Parker Clapp Memorial Library.

After a two-month summer renovation, tables, a kitchen, and the cashier’s ruby-red booth will take up the majority of the library’s second floor. In an interview with a Friendly’s spokesperson, she said that Williston’s “track record as an exceptional private educational institution won’t be damaged by removing roughly one third of the books. During a quick tour of the current library, I saw literally 12 books on JFK’s presidency. If they cut that down to one book, we’d have room for a rainbow sprinkles dispenser!”

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Tandem Bagels: First Impressions

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Buzzing. That’s the word.

Photo by Emily Gowdey-Backus

As I walk past the line of cars and cluster of chatting, caffeinated pedestrians, I catch a first glance through the glass door, a touch of modernity surrounded by ancient brick. Inside I see a bustling cafe, a dozen full tables, and a cross-section of the Easthampton community:

A local family complete with a stroller and impressively quiet baby. A group of Williston students debriefing after a stressful day. A group of middle-aged men in grey t-shirts taking their lunch break in a brand new place.

All of them and more fit into this old building made new, and they chat over strong coffee and bagels that make me wish it wasn’t Passover.

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A Few Words for Williston

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Between news of hockey meets and the rollout of our new slogan during Wednesday’s assembly, a few brave seniors stood up all over the chapel and recited a poem that they had created to sum up the school and its impact on its students in a few words.

Their combined years at Williston is longer than most students here have lived, and I found their poem to be a touching tribute to the place that has shaped them so profoundly. I hope you enjoy reading it.

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