Keystone Magazine Keystone Magazine 5th EN | Page 23

Cover Story
“A
living space should be a sanctuary,” said the Japanese architect, Tadao
Ando. “It has to be a place where you can reflect on your life. When
one arrives home, there’s a tranquil feeling.” I think what Ando means
is that a home is a place for peace and quiet so that you can reflect on yourself
and prepare yourself for all that life has to offer. For the Keystone students who
are required to stay in school dorms, we are at school for 230 or more out of 365
days in a year. In this sense Keystone is not just a school but also a home, where
our families are our friends, classmates as well as our teachers and their families.
Keystone is Tadao Ando’s ideal living space by not only giving us a warm and
cozy home, but also providing us with an oasis of calm.
Like Ando, I used to think that home is the only place where you can be alone,
away from the cares of the world, where you can truly feel any sense of calm and
relaxation. I realize now, however, that home is more than oneself. You can feel
that ideal sense of calm even in a stressful environment, faced with all kinds of
difficult issues, as long as you have friends by your side. One such instance comes
to mind. It was at the beginning of an academic year when one does not have the
luxury of transitioning from the leisure of holiday to the rigors of a school day.
In fact, in less than two months into the first semester we already had countless
assessments ahead of us in addition to plenty of extracurricular commitments.
Most students I knew were doing one of two things or both – trying to stay one
step ahead of all the looming deadlines, and counting down the days until the
annual October Chinese National Day holidays.
It was one morning during this intense period that my friends and I agreed to get
up early to finish off a presentation to be delivered that afternoon. It was already
late fall and there was an early morning chill in the air. I was standing at the
window and I could barely see the campus through the morning mist. To shake
off the drowsiness, my friends and I decided to go for a run along the length of
the corridor in the center of the campus. Then we sat together to type up our
work with immense concentration. At this very moment, despite all the pressure,
I felt a sense of tranquility. Sitting in familiar space, surrounded by friends and
peers, my sense of calm was a confidence that let me know that there were not
many challenges I (we) couldn’t overcome. This sense of belonging to a tightknit
group with trust for each other is an important part of residential life.
As boarders we enjoy the calm and peace of residential life not only because of
our friends and dormmates, but also of the residential faculty. Students receive so
much warmth, whether it’s from the snacks at weekly Monday meetings, or the
gifts and cards on our birthdays, or the care we receive in the face of inevitable
teenage challenges. I remember how one of my classmates was so touched by
the concern for his well-being shown by one of the duty teachers. It was way
past dorm bedtime, but my classmate had to run out for water because of a
nagging cold. He ran into a teacher still at work. He was worried that he would
be reprimanded for staying up late. But instead, the teacher told him to take care
of himself and get well soon. It was a small act of kindness that provided great
comfort for my classmate.
My School.
My Sanctuary.
By Phoebe Sun, Grade 11
In my years living at Keystone, teachers also feel a similar sense of belonging and
kinship with students. A teacher once told me how happy she felt after helping
a student with a difficult situation by just being a good listener. The teacher
said that she felt she hadn’t really given any useful advice, but the big smile
the student wore the next day proved the teacher wrong. I never thought that
teachers too could be affected by how students feel. This is the one of the best
aspects of Keystone’s residential life – the acts of kindness and love we encounter
everyday. We give and receive in equal measure. I think now is the time to say to
all of those special members of our school family – especially the teachers – a
great big thank you.
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