Head of School’s Notebook

March 28, 2025

Today, we welcomed a record number of newly admitted students and their parents for Revisit Day. The influx of nearly 250 visitors is a rare and wonderful event here on the Mesa, made even more special by the purpose of their visit. Like so many of the milestones we experience and expect each school year – Move-In Day, Family Weekends, Sunset Ceremony – it can be easy to get caught up in the immediacy of the moment without a chance to pause and remember what these milestones represent.

In this case, our (re)visitors represent the convergence of a long, intentional, and considered search to find students from all corners who we believe will enrich and propel the Cate legacy forward. This legacy is sustained by students who embody diversity in the fullest sense, a luminosity of self and spirit, a hungry mind, and a receptive heart. However, it is not until these remarkable students step foot onto the Mesa that the full promise of the Cate experience is revealed. Throughout my day, I spoke with our visiting students and their parents who, each in their own way, expressed a sense of awe for the magic they feel here.

No matter how many times I try to articulate the magic that is alive at Cate, I find myself searching for new words that truly convey the unique blend of homecoming and adventure inspired here. Luckily, I know you, the members of the Cate community, share the understanding of and appreciation for the promise of Cate. You can imagine my delight and relief as I moved through my day in conversation with our visitors who searched for the right words to describe their overwhelming feelings of appreciation and reverence for this place. Mostly we just found ourselves laughing in disbelief and in gratitude that we found ourselves here, in this slice of heaven, nestled in between the mountains and the sea.

As is true in the cycles of life where beginnings and endings coexist, just as we imagine welcoming in these wonderful new students, we are preparing to say goodbye to our seniors who have become even more distinct and extraordinary throughout their years here. Like the flow of outstanding students who arrive and depart year after year, I am comforted knowing that Cate remains a haven for the dreamers, the seekers, and the courageous who know magic when they see it.

It feels fit to conclude with the words of Naomi Shihab Nye in her poem So Much Happiness as she so beautifully captures my sentiments at the close of the day.

Since there is no place large enough

to contain so much happiness,

you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you

into everything you touch. You are not responsible.

You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit

for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,

and in that way, be known.