When they pack for summer vacations, Proctor students leave a campus in full bloom. The fruit orchard that has grown up south of the Learning Center has done its thing, and lilacs are in charge. Colors and scents are bright and new. Perhaps we do this on purpose; we make them go when it’s hardest.
When they arrive in September for Orientation and sports camps, students witness a season at its end. Acorns and seed pods litter the ground; Phelps Brook is a trickle; swamp maples foretell autumn. September is a time of crickets.
Today, away on beaches or at summer camps, or at work, they miss the beauty of mid-summer in Andover. In a few days or weeks, grass will become parched, cicadas will buzz and goldenrod will flower, but today the campus is bright green after another welcome rain. Oaks and maples look mature and strong, with no hint of what age will bring. I wish we could save these days somehow and bring them back for adolescents to appreciate...for them to say, “Proctor is beautiful then, too….”.
A verdant campus in reflection.
It is time to pick peas in Andover.
The Channel at Highland Lake this morning.
