The Game Called Love
By Marco Zhao, Guest Contributor
Love is an emotion,
always in motion.
Love leads to greatness,
but when that greatness turns to weakness.
Love is the one to blame,
they say ‘love is just a game.’
Oh, Cupid aims,
oh, Venus’ fame.
Everlasting love is a bluff,
finding true love is enough.
The Revealing
By Marco Zhao, Guest Contributor
All things must come to an end,
whether its positive or negative.
I hope the rules can bend,
but alas, this is always so repititive.
Nothing can buy you time,
so let’s appreciate what surrounds you.
For there is no overtime,
have you seen the shades of the night, the beautiful hue?
Our time here is coming to an end,
it is impossible for this to be bland.
Let’s spent our last moments here altogether,
and hope time brings us back together.
Dedicated to Marcela Bonet, Bill Dai, Alex Diamandakis, Noah Winsted, Rebecca Piercey, Bryant Tseng, Sherry Ren, Erik Larson, Zayna Gillani, Caitlin Murray, and many others.
The Beast in Me
By Ruth Ogechi Udeh, Summer Times Staff Writer
Though not artistic
Filled with other characteristic
You might find mystic
Because you are pessimistic.
Talentless yet bold
Due to a heart of gold
That won’t fail till I grow old
From the future foretold.
The future seems bright
Even during the eerie night
When I fight despite my bad sight
Till I get there alright.
As I reach my final destination
With great determination
Fighting against opposition
Wearing a crown of commendation.
On Nights When I Am Billie Holiday
By Tula Singer, Guest Contributor
Some nights
I wake up on the red stage,
the faceless audience listening;
every second, every instant,
every note I hold—
they only give the slightest taste.
I don’t even know what love is.
Man after man
they’ve eaten me up with the same
rancid breath and clumsy hands;
when they’re done they shove me
down
down the pipes,
each one
the same mistake again.
They take after my father—
I only ever knew his shadow.
It is best when my mind just
ebbs away,
when I can’t tell my eyes from my ears
and everything else is dead to me.
I’ll find myself madly searching for
an end—
one with no compromise
or memories;
I will search in the sewers if it comes to it,
lose my mind if I must.
I’ll take it with me to the grave.
From Rotation to Love
By Sicheng Dong, Guest Contributor
Has Earth’s rapid rotation ever made you appealed
Upon spinning compass has traveled miles away
Pointing straightly to the north in the magnetic field
In which so vital a role Earth’s spinning afar’d play
The magnetic field stares at one point like a lover
The magnetic field blocks sun radiation like a warrior
The magnetic field breeds covalent bond like a mother
Atoms in the safe zone away from separating danger
Sharing electrons, atoms happily bond and live
With the oxygen negative, and hydrogen positive
Neither falling far apart to let scattered atoms go
Nor pinching too closely, thus forming precious H 2 O
Is there a rain lasting millions of years you’ve noticed
Intermittently they occurred, converging into oceans
Such vast waters bore prokaryotes, then into protist
And then into fungi, plants, animals, including humans
Oceans allow humans to sail and navigate like a father
Oceans overthrow ships like Titanic in a violent manner
Oceans create miracles for humans like a conjurer
Making some most impressive stories like a storyteller
When the London Bridge, a peninsula in Australia broke
It was too unstable to hold the pressure a couple evoke
Whereas a separate small isle called Bird Island in Saipan
Has been seen as a sweet woman by the chest of a man
PEABODY: PEA BUDDY
By Sicheng Dong, Guest Contributor
When you walk into Peabody Hall, you will always see students
playing foosball against each other, or hear their laughter, or smell
pizzas from the common room. Here in Phillips Exeter Academy as a
small community, Peabody Hall is definitely our sweetest home, where
we are always connecting to each other like hydrogen bonds and taking
care of everyone. We are a family of 27 students and 6 advisors.
These are some activities helpful for us to gain a deeper
understanding of our dormmates that I find particularly
unforgettable.
1 BIRTHDAYS
It was not until check-in on July 19 that I learned July 21 would
be Aaron Jee’s birthday and July 24 would be Henry Hood’s birthday.
Fortunately, I had a chance to purchase some gifts on Saturday (July
20), including a few notebooks and birthday cards. At first I
intended to send them to Aaron the next morning myself so as to open
up an exciting and thankful day for him. As I started to write wishes
on the card, I felt rather than “I”, I was more comfortable with
the pronoun “we”. Then the idea of a collaborative birthday gift
sparkled: why not let everyone sign their names on the card? I
immediately coordinated with my advisor, Ms. Tinsley-Stribling, who
then hung the card on her door and sent an email to everyone but
Aaron informing them to sign their names before check-in on Sunday so
that a birthday party would be possible.
What a thrilling plan it was! That night I dreamed over and over
again expecting the 8 o’clock in the morning to turn into the 8
o’clock in the evening, check-in time for Access Exeter.
However, when I collected the card on Sunday evening, there were
merely 15 signatures. In addition, Mr. Perdomo, the advisor on duty
did not hold a dorm meeting, so students were scattered to check in
and didn’t allow a party any more. Disappointment strongly struck me
though I met Aaron at last.
By contrast, we did a great job for Henry’s birthday. We had
collected everyone’s signature by Monday. Also, both Ms. Tinsley-
Stribling and I had told Mr. Brodsky to hold everyone in the common
room until 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, which made way for the perfect
birthday party!
In conclusion, regardless of whose birthday it is, and whether we
manage to throw a party, we are all ready to encourage each other,
with a smile.
2 ADVISORY
One of the most enjoyable activities of the week is the
“Residential Life Time” on Friday mornings. Just by reading the
caption may we feel the relaxing atmosphere! Since Ms. Tinsley-
Stribling and her husband are both in charge of Peabody Hall, there
are always eleven of us sitting on a carpet.
On the first week, instead of introducing ourselves, we started by
showing and talking about two critical objects in our life, an even
better way to show one’s hobbies and preferences than direct
narration. Some of us talked of their cellphones, Rubik’s cube,
musical instruments, etc. There turned out to be a few professional
pianists and guitarists in this group! Never would we admire each
other for techniques in such disciplines unless we share them like
this.
Another activity I found quite interesting was an interactive one:
everyone needed to write one thing he liked about another person on
the piece of paper of that person without repeating something already
written. This was on the third week, so we did have plenty of
memories to write about or be inspired with. For example, there is
only one person that shares exactly the same sports schedule with me,
and he happens to be in our dorm! He is Winnie from Thailand, who has
been quite competitive in both basketball and cross country running.
These 45 minutes per week are some of the most precious and
influential time periods, given that 11 people are expressing their
genuine deep feelings about Exeter Summer, or some active attitudes
toward life. If only there were two or three advisories each week!
3 CHECK-IN
“George!” “Here!” “Ugo!” “Here!” “Ethan Cheng!”
“Here!”……
Since the first one-by-one check-in, all of us have been matching
faces to names. Some advisors such as Ms. Ferguson managed to
memorize all within five days so that they might put a tick as soon
as they saw them, whereas it took me three weeks to know everybody in
this building, for it was sometimes hard to distinguish the source of
the word “here”. I finally made it with the help of Exeter Connect,
where everyone’s portrait, full name and birthday appeared in the
“dorms” section.
After that, another ambitious plan floated out of my mind: what
about collecting everyone’s profile and memorizing all of them? Our
full names, birthdays and room numbers are readily available, while
our respective advisors and nationalities need to be filled out one
by one. This may seem meaningless as some people point out, but
remembering our basic information will not only do me good in the
last few days, but also comfort and solace me after farewell.
To sum up, this temporary family is providing us with precious
experience and friendship. In a few days our physical distance will
increase by thousands of miles, but our distance also remains only a
few inches long on the check-in list.
Sicheng Dong (Lucas)
July 27, 2019