Taking risks can be scary and overwhelming, but Emily O’Reilly, the eighth-grade English teacher at Springs School, showed students that taking risks can be worth it. Recently, she “walked the walk,” so to speak, when she entered a poetry contest she saw posted in a local newspaper.
The theme of the Bliss Morehead Poetry Grand Competition on Shelter Island this year was “hope and grace.” Naturally, Ms. O’Reilly was hesitant to enter and felt afraid of a negative outcome, but what inspired her to try was her students. She said she sees and admires how they take her advice to take risks with their writing, so she decided to enter the contest and give it a try.
Her poem “Legacy” might seem on the surface as if she is telling her childhood memories of being at her grandmother’s house with her cousins in Sag Harbor. Chewing the skin of wine grapes and later being scolded by her grandmother is one memory Ms. O’Reilly referenced, but when the reader digs deeper, it’s clear that the poem’s message is about how the greatest gift a person can give children is telling them of their roots.
Ms. O’Reilly said that when she learned by email that she had won the contest and received the grand prize of $1,000, she burst into tears of joy. She read her winning poem at the Shelter Island Library on Sunday. Even though she has become comfortable talking in front of classes full of middle schoolers, she was nervous about presenting her poem since she was sharing tender moments of her life with an audience she didn’t know.
“I want people to realize that their memories live inside them, and not objects or places,” she said.
In other news at Springs, the school physical fitness testing is about to start up for the second time this year. The phys ed teachers give the test to make sure students are healthy and doing their best to get in shape or stay in shape. Students are encouraged to beat their performance from the beginning of the school year in push-ups, situps, and running. Finally, students have to test their ability to stretch. During this test, students sit on a plastic sheet that has measurements written on it. The coach will measure how far a student is able to stretch when he or she reaches forward. Students need to fall within a specific range within these categories and cannot opt out of the fitness test unless they have a doctor’s note.
“It is good for our health to exercise,” Britney Pesantes, a sixth grader, said about the fitness test. She also said the running test “is a good way for kids to burn up their extra energy.”
By Gabriela Alvarado, 8th grade, and Siena Dion, 6th grade