I'll Start with an Introduction

Hi. I'm Celeste.

Since that's how I usually introduce myself to people I've just met, it seems like an apt way to
introduce this myself to this blog. I usually smile, too, so imagine that I'm smiling at you.

I'm starting Ambient Voices as my Senior Project. It is going to be a collection of stories from Sidwell Friends and the Wisconsin Avenue community.

I know how we, the Sidwell class of 2012, perceive Wisconsin Avenue, and now I’m discovering the other side: how Wisconsin Avenue perceives a graduating class and the act of graduation. I want to give this blog as a kind of report to my class about the neighborhood we’re leaving.

I also want to make sure that before we leave Tenley, we get to hear from the people who have been the extras in the movies of our lives. The janitors, store clerks, bus drivers, lunch ladies, street sweepers, parents of friends, administrators, security guards, and cops that populate my school and it’s neighborhood have voices and stories and families and regrets and preferences, and I think it would be an injustice to leave Wisco without ever having done them the basic courtesy of stopping, looking them in the eye, and saying “Hi. I’m Celeste. What’s your name?” Personally, I love living in a city because I love knowing that I am surrounded by endless human potential even when I don’t think about it or take advantage of that fact. I’m going to use to my blog to try and illuminate the scope of that potential for myself and my classmates.

So every day for the next month, I will interview one person who is, for me, a point of connection to the neighborhood. I’m going to direct the conversations towards the theme of graduation and the variety of things that can mean. I might use questions like “What were you like in high school? How did you change?” and “When you started working here, did you know what you were getting into? Have you ever felt totally unprepared for a job?” I want to gather stories and experiences about moving on and facing new things.

I'm interning with/being mentored by Danny, creator of The People's District , a blog I am crazy about.