NMH Magazine : Spring 2003

Heidi Sorci '98

Heidi Sorci is not afraid of the unknown or of embracing life when it doesn't go according to plan. Newly 23, she happily concedes she has no idea where she'll be or what she'll be doing in ten years—but you can bet she'll be making the world a better place. The daughter of former NMH teachers Viki Blackgoat and Thomas Sorci, she grew up on campus and spent her summers in Arizona with her extended family. She didn't venture far from home when she entered Harvard, but she quickly explored the local community by working with kids through programs like America Reads and tutoring at the North American Indian Center of Boston. A decision to take a semester off from college—it turned into a year and a half—changed everything. Planning to substitute teach in Juneau, Alaska, Heidi instead ended up working wild-life boat tours in Alaska, first on the crew and then as a naturalist. Her encounter with the marine mammals of the Inside Passage was life-altering. She was so enchanted by the migrating humpback whales that she followed them to Hawaii, where she lived for another four months—declining a teaching position in Costa Rica to do so—before returning to Juneau. Her experience cemented a long-held love of the outdoors, something that will doubtless affect the course of the rest of her life.   

What was it like growing up on the NMH campus?  

I lived there from the age of five through high school. I still dream about it all the time—the special spots in the woods where we would play, sledding on Chapel Hill, playing manhunt in the dorms with the other "fac brats" during vacations and summer. To have come from a place where education is valued so deeply and where there was such passion for learning and growing has seeped into me. 

What were you involved in at NMH? 

I volunteered for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, at the campus nursery school, and at the Franklin County hospital. I was really involved in sports—I played soccer, basketball, and softball, and rowed crew.

How have your plans changed since you started college? 

I started out thinking I'd major in environmental studies and public policy, but I didn't have the interest or patience to take the required courses. I declared a sociology major before I left for Alaska.

Do you feel like an adult? 

I'm not sure what that's supposed to feel like. My memories of childhood are still tangible and many of my questions from my high school years are unanswered, and all I want is to play with my little cousins and sister in Arizona. Other times I feel very old.

How has your understanding of adulthood changed as you've gotten older? 

I always thought my parents were adults, but as I'm coming to see them on more equal footing I see there's a lot more to their identity than just Mom and Dad–he's a younger brother and a son, she's a younger sister and a daughter. Seeing that they have lives beyond my brother and myself has helped me to slowly understand my elders better, appreciating them even more deeply.

What do you like about working with children? 

Kids embody potential and mystery and fascination. They remind us of how we used to be as kids, and still can be–they remind us of how we can approach the bigness of life fully.

What have been the high points of your life so far? 

Swimming in the ocean off the Kihei side of Maui and hearing the conversations between whales–becoming so attached to those huge creatures that I migrated with them as best as my non-marine-mammal self could. Also, driving across the country one winter involved so much learning: hiking and camping in the Grand Canyon, the vast starriness above; camping with no one else around in Sand Dune National Park in Colorado. Soaking in the beauty of the earth is a continual high point.

What's been the biggest surprise in your life? 

Traveling and experiencing so much in such a seemingly short amount of time. 

What are you doing with your time lately? 

I'm working to finish up my degree and just enjoying time with my friends. I'm also tutoring at a minimum-security facility for female prisoners, who are all mothers or pregnant. There were a number of prison-tutoring programs to choose from through Harvard's community service office, but working with women appealed to me.

How do you feel about this stage of your life? 

I'm so into it: possibility is really alive right now. It's amazing to be at the point where I feel like I have so many options for the future.

What are your future plans? 

I'm thinking of doing Teach for America after I graduate. I've always loved working with kids, and I'm leaning towards holistic or environmental education as a career, but who knows? I do know I'd like to move back to the Southwest, where my mother and extended family are.

What advice would you offer a graduating senior? 

I love what the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in Letters to a Young Poet:...have patience with everything resolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

by Samara Rafert, photo by Millicent Harvey