I was born in Iowa, about as far away from any United States border as it is possible to be. My biggest trip each year was a road trip to the East Coast to see my family, featuring 30+ hours of driving in our big grey minivan.
However, I travelled all over the world, and all through time, by way of books. I remember learning the word ‘vivacious’ in fourth grade, and confidently thinking to myself “I am a vivacious reader!”. I read constantly, and in third grade I discovered the wondrous world of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. The epic monsters, powerful gods, and complex mythology - all dressed up in easy-to-read, humorous stories - made me instantly fall in love. I started to read everything Greek- and Roman-related that I could get my hands on. For my ninth birthday, I received a boxset of all five Percy Jackson and the Olympians books. They stand on my shelf to this day.
When I was ten, my parents up and moved my family from Iowa to the United Arab Emirates. To say it was a big transition is an enormous understatement. I went from studying in a small, underfunded, rural public middle school to a private, state-of-the-art British international school. I struggled a lot with making that change for many reasons, the increased difficulty of the academics being only one. My saving grace? I got to take Latin, for the first time in my life.
I can still remember that first Latin class clear as day. We wrote simple sentences such as video puellam (‘I see the girl’), and at the end of class my teacher wrote “good!” on the first page of my notebook. I beamed, and promptly fell in love with the language.
Seven years of Latin later, having moved back to the United States to attend boarding school for my last two years of high school, I found myself at a loss. I have taken every single Latin class available at my school, and it is not enough for me. I want to do more, and the simple suggestion of “don’t take Latin for one year!” makes me scoff. Latin is an essential part of who I am, a part that began forming over a decade ago, and one that I refuse to neglect for an entire year. I want to use Latin as a lens to think about other things I care about - the queer community, literature, creative writing, music - and this Signature project is just the way for me to do that.
Emma Willard has allowed me to thrive and grow immensely as both a Latin lover and as a person. I'm excited to continue my journey through my Signature project. Stick around to see what happens! :)