The Ellis Immersion

One of my roles at work is to pitch my organization's programs, services, campaigns and personal stories to the blogger community. The challenge in doing this is depicting the impact of our programs to individuals who don't have an in depth understanding of the true magic that goes on inside our walls. Words only go so far, so in order to successfully convert a pitch into an article, a blogger tends to need an immersion experience - a tangible, visual, audible experience of one of our programs that will make my pitch a reality to them. After stirring their emotions ... they usually write a great article. 

When in a relationship with someone who wasn't present for the magic of your youth, it's hard to explain all the activities, events, friends, places and educational experiences that make up a large part of who you are. My high school experience was definitely magic and it's an important part of me - something that I want The Boyfriend to understand. But it's also one of those things that's very hard to explain - one of those things that needs an immersion experience. I often tell stories about it, but the rituals, humor, and character lose context and his interest very quickly.  

To give you a background, which I know will lose color on a computer screen, I had a less than traditional high school experience at a less than traditional liberal all-girl high school. My Mom, a vocal advocate for single sex secondary education, believed The Ellis School was the crème de la crème, so my sister and I had only one choice when making the big eighth to ninth grade leap. 

At my equally odd elementary school, I had anticipated going to the high schools portrayed through such cinematic classics as American Graffiti or Sixteen Candles. The Ellis School though, was the polar opposite. And I never got to have the crushes, crashes, cliches, and clicks in Can't Hardly Wait, American Pie or the whole Saved by the Bell series. It was a bit disappointing to never hang out at the Max, be a cheerleader with a football-playing boyfriend, meet a sensitive lacrosse player at Glee Club practice, or do the Sprain at a dance-off. But my out-of-the-ordinary experience helped make me, ME. 

I received an outstanding education and made friends to last a lifetime. And the education went way beyond the miniature classrooms. The oddities that defined the school’s culture, values, extracurricular activities, and students provided a more personal education that defined and enriched my character.

For example, I learned to:

Go Stag.  My graduating class was made up of 33 girls. No boys. This meant you had to ask boys to dances, which further meant that half the school went stag. I took myself and several beautiful dresses to a total of four dances. It's kind of depressing looking back at pictures of me, by myself, or with a girlfriend or two in front of the mantle. But going dancing alone, all dolled up, meant that I established an evolved sense of confidence and the ability to do things independently at an early age. I still have no problem seeing a movie, going out to dinner, grabbing a drink, or walking into a party alone and I thank Ellis for that.  

Gain acceptance by feeding the masses. We had a scheduled snack time everyday between 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM. There was a rotating schedule of snack responsibility, which means you had to bring in snack for 33 people every 33rd snack day. If you brought in a bad snack you were reamed out for being cheap. If you forgot snack (and I will never forget this day) you were tried and nearly tarred and feathered for not providing an extra 300-400 calories of sustenance to my already well-fed classmates. 
After that fateful day freshman year, when I forgot snack and basically played the role of Marie Antoinette as she said, “Let them eat cake,” I learned that bringing in a good snack meant you were accepted by all types. From then on I always stopped to get 40 assorted bagels (a couple extra for the really hungry ones) and several tubs of cream cheese. I swear I could have been voted class president on my snack days. (I was never even nominated, but that's another story.)
Funny thing, today, at all meetings, my team makes sure there is food, because our ideas suddenly become that much better when everyone's licking the icing off their cupcakes. Again, thank you Ellis! 

Make em laugh. When you go to school with all girls, you completely lose the immature, slapstick humor of boys. Instead, you are inundated with the dry, sarcastic humor of smart girls. Because I missed the antics of some of the boys that I went to elementary school with, I decided at certain times, I would take on the slapstick humor and spice up the learning environment. I harassed my algebra teacher by writing all over his chalkboard and then stealing all the erasers; I used to sit outside the door of my best friend's Latin class and act as a human doorstop so she couldn't leave her most dreaded class when the bell rang; I hid outside the window of my English class and threw twigs into the classroom; And I got away with ALL OF IT! I never got in trouble! In fact, the teachers laughed! Honestly, I think they were sick of the dry humor too and needed a little immaturity. 
While I don't use the same immature sense of humor today, I do use humor to ease situations and build relationships. People like to laugh and if I went to school with boys that continued to play the role of comedian, I don't think I would have the same sense of humor today. 

These are the kind of  Ellis stories I tell, but like I said, they don't have the same luster to The Boyfriend. However, this past weekend I had the prime opportunity to create an immersion experience for him - to give him an in-depth understanding. On my 10-year high school reunion, I took him back to Pittsburgh and showcased my old stomping ground, my girlfriends, their families, and our stories. 

The first stop - the cocktail party. After accidently crashing the rehearsal dinner upstairs and eating some bacon wrapped scallops, we made it to the right party. And just like the good old days, it was an all-girl affair. Except I finally had the football player boyfriend as my date. He finally got the whole going stag thing too. 

The next day I toured him around the school grounds and we ran into classmates who confirmed the snack stories. Chips and pretzels - BAD snack - That's like bringing bar food in for snack! Donuts - GOOD snack! Ice cream sandwiches - really good snack and extra points for creativity! 


I found a display of my old uniform and put on my graduation hat in the library as The Boyfriend said, "Wow, this place is so much different than my school." (Last time I wore this I was proud to be a member of the class of 2000 and had the most awful sunburn lines possible.) With each step through the halls of the Ellis School he started to get it more and more.

We saw my MVP plaques, the ceramics studio, the Glee Club practice room, the stage, the pictures of me in our school musicals, and some of my old teachers. Finally, after playing basketball in the kiddieland part of campus (the school goes from kindergarten to 12th grade), I think he finally got that deeper understanding, and the final immersion experience at Casa Velez for brunch on Sunday really solidified it. (Again, another story, which will probably be saved for bridesmaid roll-call at a later date.) 

So my somewhat staged immersion experience for The Boyfriend landed me a great story. And in the off-Ellis hours, we managed to book our reception venue. The BIG story though will be published September 3, 2011 so save the date.