— Abby Dahlstrom ‘23
Hi I’m Abby Dahlstrom and after graduation, I’m headed to Pratt institute in Brooklyn New York to study communication design.
I’d like to tell you about my journey at Watershed. My family moved to Boulder from Texas in 2018. I came from a traditional public school system— listen to lectures, memorize facts just to spit them out on standardized tests, and completely forget the information after. To that school the students were just a number… I knew that model wasn’t a great fit for my learning style but I didn’t know anything else existed.
I remember the day we toured Watershed… because there were no students there. They were all away on something called “May Term.” The school staff told us that Watershed…
Starts the year with a hiking trip.
Doesn’t have traditional grades.
Travels all over the world.
And they do something called “appreciation circles.”
My Dad burst out laughing in the middle of the interview and we started referring to Watershed as the “hippie school” because it was so different from what we had experienced in Texas. But Watershed seemed like a great fit for the way I learn — I’m a visual person and I learn by DOING, not reading how to do things.
So we applied.
Little did I know just how different my educational experience would be. Let me tell you a story that illustrates this. As many of you know, Watershed’s trimester ends in late April, followed by a May Term, which is a single course fit into a month, focused on travel and adventure. For my very first May Term in 8th grade, my group went to the Navajo/Dine Nation near the four corners area in the southwest US. During this May Term trip we did a solo, where each student spends 24 hours alone. That night a storm rolled in, with strong winds and heavy rain. Keep in mind that I was only 14 at the time and had never felt so alone before. The instructors and my classmates may as well have been a million miles away. Despite Watershed wanting its students to learn and develop courage, I did not. So I closed my eyes, hoping to sleep through the storm and the rest of the solo.
At some point in the night, a lightning strike woke me up. I was confused and scared, I had forgotten where I was and what I was doing. It felt like a dream, a nightmare I couldn’t escape. Eventually I came to my senses and decided to check my tarp and make sure everything was still dry. I sat up and peered into the darkness, where I saw two glowing eyes. A small animal—I think it was a coyote— was sitting at my feet. Normally I would have freaked out but just stared at it, frozen in time. What I thought was a terrifying glow in its eye, seemed to turn to fear— it looked as scared as I was. After what felt like an eternity, the creature sniffed a few things and scurried off into the night.
I look back on this as a defining moment in my Watershed experience for two reasons:
Number one, I would never have received this kind of education if I’d have stayed in a traditional school in Texas. Experience is the best teacher so it stands to reason that the best learning happens *outside* of the classroom. It reminds me to be grateful for the opportunities and experiences this school has given me.
Second, through this experience I met my spirit animal. You know what this meant? *I* had officially become a hippie myself.
Here’s my point:
Facts and figures are quickly forgotten but the character traits built at Watershed—things like…
Curiosity
Courage
Creativity
Critical thinking
And Craftsmanship
…stay with us forever.
I’ll close with one more thought.
A big part of any educational experience is your peer group, the people you’re having the experience with.
I’m graduating with 14 people, and I’ve learned something from each of them.
To the parents of the Watershed class of 2023, thank you for taking a chance on a different school.
Here’s to a bright future for the Watershed class of 2023!
