Hanging the photo exhibit on Friday, January 24th proved to be an exhilarating experience for me.

It goes without saying that the photos are varied in their subjects, beautiful and interesting. What else would one expect from kids at SVS? They are independent thinkers and therefore they see everything with fresh, unique eyes. They have a choice of how to spend their time in school and at home and thus they can work on honing their skills and improve at whatever they are doing. So, of course, lots of the photos are wonderful and I enjoyed working with the students to display them.

But, what was even more special for me was the process of getting this show up. Here I was in the School-Meeting/Dance Room working with six students who between them had prepared about thirty photos of various sizes and shapes. Some were about 5" x 7," some fit a 10" x 12" frame and several were 12" x 18" or more. I was wondering how in the world we would divide the available wall space in a fair and esthetic way without bad feelings. My anxieties proved to be a result of my own experience in the world, not pertinent to our community.

Here is what transpired. Everyone arranged their photos on the floor and then, after examining them, we discussed how to allocate the wall spaces fairly. Everyone was open to suggestions and critiques from the others. Everyone was patient and kind. Everyone helped to do whatever had to be done. All kinds of technical problems arose and were solved. We worked for many hours, but I heard no negative comments and saw no irritability. I almost forgot to mention that in the midst of this, Tinuviel, who was not one of the exhibitors in this show, walked into the room and with her problem-solving skills, was calmly able to take care of things that had stymied us before she joined us.

At the end of the day, I was exhausted – and so happy! I think you will see why below: