Weekly Message from HOS 2025/12/15-2025/12/19

Dear Keystonians, 

As we enter the winter break, I leave you with a small gift—a story. 

https://www.willemlange.com/audio/Favor-Johnson.mp3

This is a recording of Favor Johnson, a tale that has become a Vermont holiday classic. It speaks to the values that shaped my upbringing in the northeast of the United States: humility, quiet generosity, and the resilience found in simple living.  

My brother and I weren’t raised in a religious tradition, but my parents held onto certain rituals: saying thanks before dinner or going into the woods to cut down a fir tree to decorate in December. These and other rituals shaped this particular time of year, when the days are short and the nights are long. 

My parents chose to raise us in Vermont, a rural state committed to an understated way of life. Frugality is a virtue there; making the most of what you have is a badge of honor (my mother still wears my old high school sports shirts because they’re “perfectly good”). This humility is even woven into laws that protect the landscape, like banning billboards to preserve the natural views and minimize focus on consumerism.  

This is a perfect backdrop for an alternative kind of winter season tale. Not focused on buying things, but on using what we have to forge connections. The story of Favor Johnson resonates because it’s about hardship leading to strength in community. Favor, like many Vermonters, faces challenges—like selling land to pay taxes—that are unthinkable here. It’s also a story from a place where guns are a normalized, sometimes painful part of life, a reality of my country that breaks my heart regularly.  

Yet, at its core, it’s about people’s growth, and gratitude in the face of challenge, can ripple outwards, bringing people closer and driving connection.  

As we pause for rest and reflection, I hope you can connect with the people and stories that shaped you. And, you can feel gratitude for the story we are writing here together at Keystone. Our shared story is about building futures and nurturing dreams; it requires a deep well of strength and a resilient heart; it demands our full, sustained energy.  

Please use these two weeks to truly take care of yourselves. Rest deeply, disconnect, and recharge.

Let’s start 2026 restored and ready for the meaningful work ahead.

I hope you enjoy the story of Favor. Perhaps one of our students can translate it for us—maybe that would be a fun project on over the break! ;-) 

I look forward to seeing you, refreshed, in the new year. 

With gratitude and best wishes,  

Emily