Exhibitions

Eagle Pride

It’s the most stereotypical function of high school, yet the most exciting, even stimulating of them all: football. From the perspective of an outsider, what does it look like, once on the inside?

I had never attended one of our games before, let alone one of such significance as a battle against our famed rival, the Blue Devils. The buzz, the energy, the spirit - it was all tinted green and a vintage yellow, like a flash of wistfulness for good days. And they were good, truth be told.

In the United States, graduating high school students are dubbed lovingly, the playfulness audible, “seniors.” We’re old. We’re tired. We’re too ready to be grown up.

But there are some things that never change. Those colors, those emotions, those chanting crowds. That pride, glinting in every senior’s eyes.

This Stage of Life

Romance is pervasive in any stage of life, especially adolescence. The cliches and tropes of how we fall for those around us define the manner in which we do - softly, with grace, or hard, with passion - but has romance actually changed over time?

In this stage of our lives, it has become more and more visible that the youth of today spend less time being romantic in the classical sense of the word, and more time being in love in the unique way of their generation.

And I think, to be in love, is the radical act of not only loving yourself, but loving everyone: philia, as the Greeks called it, or affection defined by friendship; the ultimate companionship. Auguste Rodin embodied romance in his sculptures, but our generation today embodies love in our choices.

Gamble Rogers

What sets the South apart from all other regions of the United States is its unique vegetation, its fickle weather, and flagrant rebellion against the rules of men. Key to these principles is the underlying companionship that allows us to tame such a diverse, irreverent landscape.

As a Northern-born outsider, it is easy to become lost in the urban spectacles and cultural fiascos that are so often used to characterize this breathtaking place of natural, untouched beauty.

If one looks carefully enough, no matter the township they call home, friendship can be found everywhere in Gamble Rogers - under the shade of trees; beneath the lapping tides of the sea; over the underbrush of thick roots and deep green leaves.