What a year 2023 has been! The wars in Ukraine and the Holy Lands, two of our family's second homes, continue to weigh heavily from afar. May we all wish, work, and live for peace.
(Left to right: Aaron, Kourtney, Maya, Elliot, Libbie, Ben at Grandma Karen's house)
Thanks to a fellowship in Germany, our family had a 2022-2023 adventure, living, attending school, and working on new projects in Aachen, Germany. (The previous two posts list unsorted photos from 2022 and 2023, respectively.) Hochdeutsch lohnt sich!
Maya (11) speaks arguably the best German in the family and went to fourth grade entirely in German at a public school in Aachen, Germany; has blossomed in fifth grade back home in Tulsa, Oklahoma (where she serves in student leadership); practices piano, cello, and choir with some regularity; studies with mathematics and science clubs; is entering the youth program in our Church; and enjoyed returning with Grandpa John (“Saba”) to visit London and Paris this November. She is preparing to enter middle school, with aplomb. A friend to many, Maya is a light and joy in the lives of all who know her.
Libbie (14) speaks arguably the best Spanish in the family as well as some fine German, given she attended eighth grade in a mixture of German and English at an excellent Gymnasium in Aachen, Germany; she continues to prosper now in ninth grade in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she runs cross country and plays soccer, practices violin and piano with some regularity, and studies advanced mathematics. An early morning seminary ace, she is also president of her youth organization at Church and is preparing to return to life and language learning through living and studying in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, or Morocco in the coming years. A pro student and force for good in the world, Libbie brings focus and charm to all whose lives she touches: for example, a rare gem among her peers, she recently and voluntarily quit social media.
Elliot (17) spent the year in Germany growing almost a foot (30 cm), towering over us all now at maybe 6'5" (195 cm). He now maintains and is developing intellectual, social, car, and life autonomy through classes and friendships as a junior at a new high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also plays a lot of video games with friends online. Rumor holds he's an excellent student! An early morning seminarian, he also works out at the gym and recently demolished a standardized test meant to help open doors after high school graduation. We all are very excited to see where life takes our resident jokester in the coming years!
Aaron (20) is now a second year student at a very fine college in Santa Fe, where he is blossoming into the life of mind as an excellent double major in philosophy and the history of mathematics and science. A game strategist, he is developing research interests around applied and theoretical mathematics through readings, essay writing, campus club leadership, and summer courses. When not at seminar, reading, or at campus events, he can often be found hiking the trails and camping among the beautifully austere Sangre de Christo mountains with delightful friends. His parents and siblings felt a recent swell of pride watching him lead seminar conversations on Copernican geometry, Greek vocabulary, and St. Matthew on campus.
Ben prospered in Aachen, Germany, enjoying many new colleagues, improving his German, and completing what he calls "bad drafts" of book manuscripts on the Soviet prehistory to artificial intelligence, a (brilliantly coauthored) book on Russian hackers, and a book of letters to young college students. In addition to the usual dozen talks a year, he helped launch a year ago a new magazine called Wayfare (more of his scribbles here: for example, on 2024 new year resolutions). Excited to get back to the classroom after a welcomed break, he begins teaching in and chairing his department again this coming January.
Kourtney also flourished in Aachen, mastering fine German and traveling across Europe with visiting sisters and subsets of our family. Having stepped back from teaching to move abroad, she recently pivoted to join an excellent nationwide mathematics education consultancy, where she enjoys working remotely with a great team on curricular content meant to encourage playful discovery and avoid rote memorization. This January she opens a new career chapter by beginning a second masters program, this time in analytics and data science at Georgia Tech. The adventures continue!
Our collected 2023 book recommendations include Bates' An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence, various short stories by Ray Bradbury, Capote's In Cold Blood, Desmond's Poverty, by America, Hardy's The Annotated Book of Mormon, Hunt's Fish in a Tree, Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, and Ukrainka's Forest Song. Something for almost everyone. Enjoy!
We wish you and the world peace, joy, and good tidings not only during these holidays and the new year but to all years.
