Big news for the Becker family today!
Many of you have watched and read and listened as our family has grown up over the years, first at The Lawrenceville School (the setting of A Good and Perfect Gift), and then at The Frederick Gunn School here in Washington, CT (the setting of much of Small Talk, White Picket Fences, and To Be Made Well).
I’m writing today to share the news that this will be our final school year at Frederick Gunn. Next year, my husband Peter will become the Head of School at Taft, our alma mater. Peter and I met at Taft when we were both sixteen (see photo below—can you believe how young we look?!?). We dated throughout my senior year, and we sat and talked every morning on a particular bench in the main hall of the school (again, see photo, with our kids at Peter’s 20th reunion on that same bench!). Taft formed and shaped us both—through years of coming to faith and learning how to write and connecting with lifelong friends and life-changing teachers and struggling with identity and all the beautiful and harrowing realities of being a teenager. (As a bonus, see the last shot of Penny in her Taft hat reading Ramona at my 20th reunion nearly ten years ago!)
We are focused on finishing this school year well, with gratitude for the tremendous gifts The Frederick Gunn School and the town of Washington have been to us and our family. (For those of you who don’t know who Frederick Gunn is, he was an ardent abolitionist, founder of recreational camping in America, and an ahead-of-his-time educator who understood kids. We’ve loved learning from the example he set nearly two centuries ago.) And, of course, I’m also all of a sudden waking up in the middle of the night thinking about packing and moving and the ridiculous number of things we need to throw away and give away and sort through.
But for today, I am raising a glass to Peter for his love for family and students, to The Frederick Gunn School for taking a risk on a young teacher and his family eleven years ago, and to Taft for welcoming us back. We are grateful for the past and excited for what lies ahead.
More with Amy Julia:
- Sabbatical Announcement and Learning to Rest
- S6 E2 | A Curious Faith with Lore Ferguson Wilbert
- What Energizes Me? Anxiety or Love?
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