Josiah Wilson
What is your first memory of Trinity?
I didn’t want to come to Trinity, despite the fact that I didn’t really fit in well at my public elementary school. It felt hard for me to find something in common with those classmates. It was tragic for me that I didn’t have a phone like they did. But I still did not want to leave. I remember feeling like everyone was so friendly at the Trinity sixth grade party at the start of the year. Even the girls talked to me!
What do you think makes Trinity Academy distinctive?
One way I think about it is that I feel that I’ve been equipped for meaningful discussions with anyone. As a younger student, the older students have taken all the courses you’re taking, so you have so much possibility for deep conversations about physics problems or HL books. Everybody is a part of the same culture and we have a shared experience to connect over. And it spreads even wider than just students. I never thought that I'd be able to hold a conversation with a middle schooler's parent who I don’t know, but, it turns out, I can.
Do you have a favorite Trinity Academy tradition?
I love dance lessons and getting to do real social dances at the Spring Formal. It’s a neat life skill to have, and lessons seem to bring us all together. I was asked this year to teach the Imago Dei youth group how to swing dance. I wish it was more common! It brings all the grades together, helps us to be more comfortable with each other, and we get to put forward our best selves. And it happens at the end of the year when we’re all ready to celebrate with each other.
What have been your biggest challenges at Trinity as a high schooler?
I think the biggest problem has honestly been the work-life balance. Once you hit the realization that school is actually meaningful and life-building, then it becomes less of something you dread. Up through about ninth grade, I thought school was not very fun. The change was a lot of individual switches all getting flipped. I started trying harder because my parents got on my case about my evaluation not being very good. Then I had Mr. Gaffney, who was so passionate about Humane Letters 10. I was being challenged, but I enjoyed the challenge. Finally, in eleventh grade, when we started derivatives in Calculus, I saw that this brought all of math together in one class. It blew my mind. Now I feel like I want to know what I can learn from each class. Even down the road, I might realize that a class was good for me.
What extracurriculars did you participate in? What have those experiences added to your life?
I think I have been in literally every possible extracurricular. I think my favorites have been Action and Trinitones. Action has had an immeasurable impact on my life. I've gotten the opportunity to experience different cultures, to worship God, and also learned what it means to serve people.
What was your favorite book you read in HL?
The Divine Comedy was my favorite epic poem. Compared to the Iliad and the Odyssey, it had more to say to me. It talks about things that affect everybody, including (literally) how to get to heaven. I also enjoyed how every single person we’d ever learned about made a cameo appearance in it. That seemed like an answer to the glorification of Greek heroes – as if to say, you have to be careful to know who are the real heroes. And a random Italian person you meet on the street might be the equal of a mythological hero. For Dante, what’s in a person’s soul is what determines their greatness.
What advice would you give your eighth grade self about how to get the most out of Trinity?
I would encourage myself to take work seriously, take myself seriously, and take friendships seriously. Consider the kind of people that you want to become friends with. One of the goals of friendship is to better each other. You could take some pretty pessimistic views about how people are or aren’t worth pursuing in friendship. Or start to think, if I can’t find my kind of community, I’m not going to get involved. Then you never get started. But I’ve started thinking this year about what kind of community I can create. What can I do for younger students to make the kind of community I would have needed?
What’s next for you? What do you hope it will be like?
I am heading to Calvin College. I’m hoping to study nursing. I want to be able to do something that serves people and where I can see the effects every day. In my college search, I wanted the closest thing to Trinity I can have. I wanted a school where students wanted to learn and the school would hold true to its values. I hope I’m able to find a community that loves each other and that loves God.
