2016 was a year to explore this unique state from top to bottom. From San Diego in the spring, we also ventured to the Mojave, Point Reyes, Gold Rush-era Columbia, the Sierras, Humboldt, the Tule Lake Internment Center museum, and the caves in Lava Beds (with a side trip to Crater Lake). Taken together, these places remind us that although our struggles for economic improvement, justice, and protection of wild spaces are ongoing, our society can, with proper mindfulness and motivation, create a world we want to live in. May we all foster mutual encouragement and uplift this coming year to build mountains reaching for the sky.
Chào,
Savio, Sequoia, Liwen, and Yvette
After more than a decade at Fenwick, Liwen found an opportunity to work full time on conservation at The Nature Conservancy. Fenwick has an amazing culture of advocating for vulnerable members of our society, many of whom need more help than ever in areas such as housing, immigration, and First Amendment rights. However, what we do to nature affects us all (humans and otherwise), and Liwen is glad to undertake a larger role in helping to protect the lands and waters on which all life depends. Faced with eroding federal support, science-based organizations like The Nature Conservancy must step up and show that our civilization can flourish while also preserving our natural legacy. Liwen also joined the board of Youth Outside, a nonprofit that exposes kids to the outdoors and prepares youth for related professions. The gradual uplift? Though it doesn’t get any easier at this age, Liwen has enjoyed playing Satie’s “Gnossiennes” and the Pixies on piano, shredding and skate skiing in the recent snow, and getting out to climb in Yosemite and Lover’s Leap.
Sequoia has bravely marched on to middle school after graduating from 5th grade in May. Despite the difficult transition from a nurturing elementary school class to less warm-and-fuzzy set of middle school classrooms, she has met the challenge with aplomb. It probably helps that she commandeers the radio (with endless pop music) and intersperses her hours of studying with plenty of social texting. We are also impressed that she has taken on new endeavors, like learning to snowboard, joining choir, trying out for and participating in her first team sport (volleyball), cooking recipes she finds online, and learning to be skeptical of the middle school boyfriend phenomenon. In August in Yosemite, she also did her first non-family backpacking trip, where her fellow campers nicknamed her “Smiley.” The gradual uplift? Throughout her adventures this year, she has exhibited an incredibly positive attitude, patience and perseverance, and a consideration for her friends and teammates. And she’s learned to assert herself against occasional injustices that her parents and little brother wreak.
