The Hill Academy Newsletter- November 29th, 2020

November 29th, 2020 HILL Message (from Academic Director Rick Kunc): At Canadian Thanksgiving I wrote: “It’s hard to be thankful right now. It’s easy to be distracted by the negative.” And I wrote about our choices, and how we can choose to show gratitude, and to find the positive in each of our situations. I believe that when we make this choice, to see the positive and be grateful, that ultimately, we are better. It allows us to be our best selves. So as we were entering the American Thanksgiving weekend I went for a walk around the school and asked some of our teachers what they were grateful for here at The Hill. This is what I got in just 15 minutes: “I am grateful for the resiliency of our students” “I am grateful for the trails and this beautiful campus that we can make use of each day” “I think that it is great that all of our students have very similar goals, and that gives them the drive to be successful” “I am grateful that our students have the access to the technology we need to deliver our program right now” “I am grateful that we can be in classrooms with our students and are not fully online” “I am grateful to work with student athletes, many of whom share the same dreams and aspirations that I had when I was their age” “I am really just grateful that we are all safe and given the opportunities to work with some amazing students” What was amazing about this is no one really hesitated. They all easily found something to be grateful for. And this speaks to our culture at The Hill. But what was also great is when I came back to my office, I felt great. When others are positive it impacts us. By hearing all those positive messages, I felt more positive myself. So maybe part of the lesson in this is that when we strive to be our best, it makes those people around us better. And when I was almost back at my office, I held a door open for a couple of students. I said, “let me ask you something, before you go through the door you have to tell me something you are grateful for.” Student 1 said “I’m grateful you are holding the door”, and student 2 said “that my parents sent me to The Hill”. To our American families, Happy Thanksgiving. And to the rest of our community, enjoy the long weekend.