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NMH Magazine : Winter 2005

Parting Words

Just Name Us Indefinable 

by Gabe Costa ’06 

 

Northfielder Gabe Costa spoke at a November all-school meeting about the challenges of transitioning to the Mount Hermon campus in 2005. The following is drawn from his speech.

 

On the day the NMH Board of Trustees announced that we’d be moving to one campus, I’d been on the farm feeding a calf. I therefore arrived at the meeting late, missing the announcement, so it took me a minute to get my bearings. Around me were my peers and teachers, some composed, many wearing grim expressions, and a few with tears rolling down their cheeks.

To the intellectual side of my mind, the decision came as no shock. Consolidation will in the end allow the school to focus its attention and resources upon whatever programs it chooses, without being financially strained.

Of course, that only accounts for what’s purely analytical within me—which, as my English teacher, David Dowdy, can attest, is precious little. I was, and still am, grieving. This place resonates profoundly within me. I’ve spent countless hours walking the campus and the woods that surround it. I’ve stood upon Round Top of an evening, watching a sunset that melts the heart from the steps of Sage Chapel. I’ve become closely acquainted with Gould heaters, which have a temper unto themselves.

Emotionally, it’s difficult to bid farewell to this campus and still spend another year at this school. I think this holds true for many of you. And yet there’s much we can share and bring to NMH next year.

This school has a unique dynamic, one that differentiates it from the Andovers and Putneys of the world. That dynamic is maintained at the moment by the existence of two campuses. We’re one large community, yet our individual identities are influenced by our placement on the Northfield or Mount Hermon campus.

We Northfielders are an eclectic lot. Perhaps it’s because our campus has no defined center. We don’t all eat in the same dining hall; we don’t often hang out in Tracy. Frankly, we don’t fit the stereotype of Northfield hippies any more than the stereotype of Hermon jocks holds true. That might be a bit rich coming from me: I have long hair, I’m a liberal, I identify myself as a theatre person, and I find solace in the woods. I walk around campus barefoot, yes, and sing in trees. I work on the NMH farm, and I’m a varsity athlete who goes home to Westchester, New York, every vacation. Still fit that boxy stereotype of a typical Northfielder? If you want a good stereotype, just name us indefinable—like everyone else at the school.

Northfielders, we should not go to Hermon next year with our opinions of it set, because that could make for a really long year. Perhaps it helps to use the meta phor of immigrating to a new country: We know that we have to move because in the long run it’s our best option. Yet it hurts a great deal because we’re leaving our home prematurely.

We know there’s no returning. We also know that we’re going to lose much.

We’ll find Hermon to be home, at least on the surface, and we’ll be the bearers of change. I believe this school will not be the same next year. Hermon will change once the two campuses combine. The stereotype of a jock campus is very difficult to uphold if there’s no longer a hippie campus to compare it to. Now that we denizens of Northfield are immigrating, let us be both unified and cohesive while also continuing to nurture our creative, provocative spirit.

Now, just to wrap up, I’d like to ask all Northfield students who will be returning next year to stand.

I’d like to ask all Mount Hermon students who will be returning to stand as well.

You have the feel of a strong community. Yet when you’re standing up, you don’t look like two separate communities, but one greater one. These people who are standing, plus incoming students, will form our student ody next year. Please, let us make the most of—and keep—our unique dynamic.