Hello again, friends and readers; I believe I owe you an apology. It's been months since I last wrote, and I don't have an excuse. All I can say is, sometimes life feels overwhelming, and I don't handle it well. Life here at Mandala hasn't gotten any more manageable, but as the school year comes to an end, this blog has been weighing on my conscience. I can't let the story trail off here without conclusion or completion. I'll be writing until the end of the year, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
The last time I wrote, we were preparing to perform the Fall concert and wrap up our first semester. Well, the concert was a success. I don't know exactly how well we did, (the video I've seen of the show was less than stellar) but we had an amazing time, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. We did learn quite a bit in planning and performing which should make our final celebration worth coming our for. I know we're all excited about it.
The concert was fun, but despite our enjoyment, we were all ready for a break from school. Thanksgiving was like a cup of hot chocolate and an open fireplace after hours of shoveling snow. It was delightful. By the time the short week was up, we were all ready to close out December quickly and well. This brief time between holidays was unusual. We felt like we were in a state of limbo. Mr. Skogen and Mrs. Bortins used the time to explore new schedules and methods of teaching. It was short and sweet, and Christmas came, and we spent many delighted days with our families.
We returned to find change. I was one of the first ones home to the villas and I enjoyed watching my fellows return, one after the other, until we had almost our full fellowship. When we started school on Monday, Mrs. Bortins announced to us that Gracsyn was moving on from the fellowship to pursue other things. A few days later, she left under a hail of goodbyes.
Gracsyn's departure was the biggest change, but by far not the only one. Our teachers implemented a new weekly schedule. We start the day with an extra half-hour of devotions and run until half-past noon, when our day is done. Tuesdays and Thursdays are now entirely music, while Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are still devoted to Physics. (Wednesday afternoons are spent in entrepreneur class) While we all started off at the same level in physics, a few people pushed far ahead, and some lagged behind. The class is no longer unified enough for Mrs. Bortins to teach to all of us at once, so the fellowship has taken hold. We group ourselves pretty well, staying with the people who can help us, and Mrs. Bortins roams between us on her many busy errands, stopping to teach us whenever we ask the slightest question.
While music and physics certainly take up our time and attention, our service project has been very engaging. I'm sure you all are very aware of our progress with National Number Knockout. We've all made sure of that. I'll just say that some of the fellows here have been working non-stop on N2K, promoting, planning, and developing the game we hope to launch soon. The last few days have been especially hectic as we watched a collective seven hours of scouting videos. I actually really enjoyed it. It was delightful to see so many people from so many states so excited about something we think is so important. I got to practice my math skills against some ridiculously good nine-year-olds, and it's all made me look forward to the competition even more than I already was.
Austin and Jake have been much less involved in N2K than anyone else. They're not slacking off, however. Instead of the competition, they've been hard at work developing apps for the iPhone. Nobody else was motivated enough to start their own business as originally planned, and we've been mostly working on N2K as our alternative.
There's plenty to keep us busy, however, without the help of this competition. Mr. Skogen has been introducing plenty of new songs, by artists from Handel to Billy Joel, and we have to spend time on them outside of class if we ever want to learn them. The people who jumped ahead in physics didn't do so just because they're smarter than the rest of us, but because they've been using their evenings for extra study. There will be no shortage of activities to keep us busy here until the end of the year, that's for sure.
In a nutshell, that was past two months of Mandala Madness. There is one last thing, and not a happy thing. Zach Leitzel has left, moving on to start his career like Gracsyn has. We're reminded of Tolkein's Fellowship, the tightly knit group which found itself pulled in too many directions to stay together, and which eventually ripped itself apart. But like that fellowship, we know that our paths will cross again. Our time together, especially in devotions, has revealed and shaped our existing desire for the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, and I'm sure we'll be united in that until it comes to its necessary conclusion.
That's all for today. It's good to be back. I'll make sure I keep posting updates until Mandala is finally finished.
Until next time,
Barnabas Holleran
