Del Mar Academy and Almanack
Yesterday I visited Del Mar Academy, a pre-K-12 co-ed day school in Nosara. After Lydia and I decided to engage with the Nosara community in new ways, I spoke with Emily and Carlos, two passionate Del Mar Academy teachers to plan what became a three hour storytelling workshop with a class of tenth graders.
Writing is a personal endeavor, best done using personal experiences, and so as we discussed the idea that characters in stories have WANTS and DREAMS, I asked students to share some of their wants over the years. I was impressed with what they shared. One boy shared his dream of an infinite ice cream maker that reminded me of a Willy Wonka invention. In the Nosara heat, it was fun to imagine. One girl shared an old desire for a sibling that she no longer has. I suppose she sees some benefits to being an only child. One kid simply wanted his football team win the World Cup, and who can blame him? A few students shared what seemed to be a heartfelt desire to ‘go home’, which seemed specific to this school that’s populated with many students who were born and raised in other countries.
In addition to wants and dreams, we talked about obstacles to those wants and how to get around them; we wrote monologues in the name of character development; and we shared ideas along the way. Most importantly we talked about the power and value of the Unique You. Nobody grew up exactly like you. Nobody else grew up as that oldest child in that red house in that rural town; nobody else heard what your father said to your mother on that angry night; nobody else lay in that bed staring up at that ceiling. The seeds for stories are endless. The seed might be a memory, an image we can’t shake, a cruel act we were subjected to, a moment of bliss we’re forever chasing. And these seeds, like literal seeds, carry the potential for growth.
When I said goodbye to the students and teachers at Del Mar Academy, I found myself hoping at least one (and hopefully more) would plant and water the seeds found during that workshop to grow something beautiful and unique.
