Why Prep

August 12, 2024

Hello Sandia Prep Community, 

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year! I feel like we were just celebrating the Class of 2024 and sending our students off for the summer. And yet here we are back at school and already immersed in all of the things that differentiate Sandia Prep as an amazing school.

As I mentioned in the recent Weekly Wrap-Up, I read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl over the summer. I also had the chance to revisit an all-time favorite, Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights. So much of both of these books resonate with my philosophy on living my best life (and an attitude I aim to instill in our Sandia Prep students).

Let’s begin with Frankl. Man’s Search for Meaning offers profound insights that are especially relevant for our school community. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, emphasizes a powerful idea: while we cannot always control what happens to us, we have the freedom to choose our response. This concept holds immense value for both our personal lives and our educational environment.

Frankl’s experiences in concentration camps taught him that even in the most harrowing circumstances, one can find meaning and maintain a sense of inner freedom. He writes, "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." This lesson is crucial for all of us: our students, faculty and staff, parents, and alumni. Life will inevitably present us with challenges, but it is our response to these challenges that defines us.

A central theme in Frankl’s work is the importance of finding purpose in life. He believed that having a clear sense of purpose is essential for mental and emotional well-being. For our students, this means seeking out experiences that not only enrich their own lives but also allow them to have a positive impact on others. Whether it’s through community service, leadership roles, or personal relationships, we encourage our students to find their purpose by engaging in meaningful activities that contribute to the greater good. By finding meaning in every situation, they can transform hardship into personal development and strength.

Frankl also speaks of the idea that meaning can be found in small moments. Even when he was in despair, he found solace in imagining his beloved wife, in admiring a beautiful sunset, and in acts of mercy like receiving an extra crust of bread. 

Almost 75 years later, Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights offers a refreshing perspective on finding joy in everyday moments. Gay’s year-long practice of noting daily delights reminds us of the importance of mindfulness and gratitude. He discovers that delight is often found in the simplest of things – a shared laugh, a blooming flower, or a kind gesture. His reflections remind us to appreciate the present and to find joy amidst the busyness of life.

Integrating Gay’s practice into our lives can have a transformative impact. Keeping a journal of daily delights can help us cultivate a positive outlook as well as resilience. Just like Frankl, Gay teaches us through his essays that while we may not control all aspects of our lives, we can choose to focus on the positives and find joy in small, everyday experiences.

As we enter this new school year at Sandia Prep, I hope to embrace these lessons from Frankl and Gay and to encourage others to do so as well. This can be a difficult idea for adolescents to grasp, but I hope to instill in them the idea that they hold the power to shape their responses to life’s challenges and to find meaning and delight in every day. By doing so, they equip themselves not only with the tools to succeed academically but also with the resilience and joy needed to lead fulfilling lives.

Viktor Frankl says, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” And as Ross Gay reminds us, delight is always within reach, waiting to be noticed and cherished. Together, these insights offer a powerful blueprint for a meaningful and joyous life. Sandia Prep’s mission states, “The joy of learning and living is at the center of all we do.” These two authors remind us how important that is.

I’d love to end with a section of one of Ross Gay’s essays because it illustrates beautifully why joy is such an integral part of our mission: “

“Because in trying to articulate what, perhaps, joy is, it has occurred to me that among other things - the trees and the mushrooms have shown me this - joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union between us, you and me, which is, among other things, the great fact of our life and the lives of everyone and thing we love going away. If we sink a spoon into that fact, into the duff between us, we will find it teeming. It will look like all the books ever written. It will look like all the nerves in a body. We might call it sorrow, but we might call it a union, one that, once we notice it, once we bring it into the light, might become flower and food. Might be joy.”

Here’s to a joyous, rich, and meaningful school year!

All the best,

Heather