Thoughts and Observations
by Trevor Cralle
I started as a freshman in the fall of 1975, and now suddenly(!) I am in my 40th year as a member of the Maybeck staff. Here are a few random thoughts that are on my mind these days:
Perhaps you have seen in the news that UC Berkeley has enclosed People’s Park with a giant wall of double-stacked shipping containers and is moving forward with turning the historic space into student housing. The image is rather dramatic and makes one reflect.
As I walk across the Cal campus with my hiking PE class, I notice that roughly 80% of the people are walking with their faces glued to their phones and ears plugged with headphones, rarely looking up and fully unaware of their surroundings. Sign of the times.
Although the roots of the pineapple as the Maybeck mascot date back to the mid-to-late 70s, it’s really taken hold in the last 20 or so years. Stay tuned for the ‘Pineapple Manifesto,’ which contains all the facts, history, and trivia, which I plan to post on the Maybeck website.
I miss former teacher Dave Kinstle’s presence around school every day. I think about him a lot and how he gave his all to this institution. He was definitely one of a kind.
As Maybeck’s Director of Outdoor Education, a lot of my energy goes into planning fun events throughout the school year that students have the option of participating in. Some of the activities in recent years have included sound bathing, Autumn Lights Festival, Pier 24 Photography Museum, Eastern Sierra camping, Flower Piano, Abbot’s Lagoon hike, and roller skating at the Church of 8 Wheels. A huge bonfire out at Ocean Beach in early September is becoming a bit of a tradition. Please feel free to send any ideas for interesting activities my way.
I always enjoy searching for Maybeck alumni, staff, and former staff publications, and I’m very proud of the bookcase we are filling up. The collection is pretty impressive, but I’m sure we are missing some, so please let us know if you hear of any. If you haven’t seen the publication Maybeck High School - The First 50 Years: 1972-2022, I highly recommend that you check it out. It’s packed full of Maybeck everything. You can contact me to order a copy.
Trevor Cralle ‘79
Always a Question of Time
By Anne Marszalek, Maybeck teacher 1980–2019
For decades, the school’s daily schedule and yearly calendar provided a structure for my life, a clear map for navigating time. More often than not, time eluded me, and like most of us, I found myself wishing for more. Back then, time seemed impervious no matter how much I tried to stretch or “organize” it. When I first stopped teaching, the thought of this unlimited expanse of completely free time almost made me dizzy. Quite a bit of that first summer went into planning my husband’s and my European extended fall vacation, an enhanced stretch of time spent in the Balkans, Venice, and France. Traveling had been very high on my retirement agenda, but those were pre-pandemic dreams. Since then, we’ve remained on this continent, and our trips have required shorter flights to more reachable, if still wonderful, discoveries. Soon, though, I hope to be on my way to Europe again…
Finding myself more housebound than I had expected, I turned to… home improvement. I left the execution to skilled and nimble people but took on most of the research and planning: so many options every step of the way, so many hours spent weighing pros and cons or considering aesthetic choices… almost overwhelming at times! It was a crash course in the building arts. Although new projects are not hard to find with a house over 100 years old, the garden was next on the list. I’ve been defeated in my attempt at growing fruit trees by assorted pests… and have grown tired of only getting their leftovers; I even entertained murderous thoughts about squirrels. In any case, it seemed right to start again with all native plants. I can’t claim that I love gardening, although I enjoy puttering around in the garden when my body lets me. What I do love is the results when they’re successful, and mine are definitely mixed. Gardens, both grand and intimate, designed and maintained by knowledgeable minds and hands, are wonderlands. So, while I help select plants, learning a whole new vocabulary of plant names, I’m letting experts work their magic and will sit back to admire the more guaranteed result.
As for hobbies, I’ve held on to some (photography, mosaics) and let go of others. But retirement has offered me the highest form of luxury: unlimited time for reading, with some writing on the side. And I have lovely friends in my book group with whom to discuss some of those readings. I watch a lot of movies, too. Obviously, I couldn’t think of a better place to volunteer than the library. And I’m afraid I’ve become somewhat of an armchair activist. But one of the most enjoyable parts of retirement for me is that it allows for spontaneity, something I’ve always strived to maintain in my life: a spur-of-the-moment outing, a hike, a ride into the wilderness, a walk with a friend.
That said, retirement time has acquired an elasticity that sometimes mystifies me: it seems life slows down, but time accelerates. Not counting the hours spent trying to pry elusive answers from unresponsive bureaucracies or on indispensable body maintenance, my time is all mine, and the concept of free time has lost its meaning. But I am just as eager to use it wisely, not to squander such a gift, and I try to end each day with a sense of accomplishment. According to a friend of mine, the ideal number is three accomplishments, but I do my best…
Anne Marszalek (February 2024)
Type Two Fun
by Peter Walsworth, Former Academic Dean
In the spring of 2017, I knew I was leaving Maybeck. Not because I wanted to leave Maybeck but because I knew that Benjamin, Kate, and I were moving to Rhode Island to be closer to family. As a last hurrah, I got to lead a Special Program to the California desert with Maybeck legend and all-around extraordinary human Trevor Cralle, someone I consider somewhere between a best friend and a brother. Early in the trip, in Death Valley, we were heading out for the day to go hiking in a slot canyon. On the way out of the campground, the ranger asked us, “You all know we’ve got weather coming?” We did not. He explained that there was a windstorm coming in the afternoon. Lots of dust, and anything that wasn’t staked down was going to wind up in Bakersfield. “Type Two Fun,” he said with a grin, “You know, the kind that’s not fun at all at the time, but it’s fun in retrospect.” Off we went.
The slot canyon cut into the rock at an angle perpendicular to the wind, so our hike was sheltered, and we spent the morning in ignorant, windless bliss. But on the hike out, as we approached the mouth of the canyon, the air beyond the opening was yellow with flying dust, and when we stepped into the open, the wind knocked us sideways. After a white-knuckle drive back to our camp, we returned to a chaotic tragicomedy: most of our tents flattened to the ground with their flies detached and luffing in the wind, and all of them filled with a deep layer of fine sand. The students–their faces blasted with grit, their ears and scalps filling with desert dust–were utterly delighted. “THIS IS TYPE ONE FUN!” one of them screamed over the roar of the wind as they gathered belongings strewn about the site, “IT’S FUN RIGHT NOW!”
While I was squarely in the Type Two camp right then, I took their point. I’ve thought about that moment—and others like it—a lot since then. So much of how you respond to life has a lot to do with who goes through it with you. Trevor used to always say, “There are a hundred students, around two hundred parents, twenty-five faculty… on a given day, you figure something’s gonna happen.” This prospect was always exciting to Trevor (and fits snugly with another of his quotes: “I’ve never been bored for a single second in my life.”). I always found that it was sharing those experiences–Type One and Type Two alike–with the Maybeck community that made them particularly rich.
These days, I work in admissions at a small private school in East Providence, Rhode Island. I love my school and my job, but I miss Maybeck. It is a place like no other: the bonds among and between faculty and students–forged in camping trips, special programs, and the everyday shared experience of school–are deep and unique, something that I never took for granted then and that I still appreciate now. For those of you who went to Maybeck: I’m sure you know what I mean. For those of you who are students now, I hope that you have so much Maybeck Type One fun. And for everything else, trust me: it’s Type Two.
Peter Walsworth, Former Maybeck Academic Dean
The Maybeck Life of a Junior in 2024
by Lilah Fernandez
Lilah Fernandez ‘25 representing the Maybeck Asian Student Union at the Spring Club Fair
It’s widely acknowledged that during one’s junior year of high school, the intensity of school begins to ramp up. It’s an important year! You are officially an upperclassman. Now you have to start thinking about college at least a little. Your senior friends are graduating (which I get sad about every time I think of it). Many of you would have had your driver’s license by now. Those who came to Maybeck their freshman year will have now spent three years forming relationships with peers and teachers. I'm sure that though years may have passed, many things stay true to the junior-year-at-Maybeck experience.
I have had my first college counseling meeting with our wonderful college counselor, Giulietta, in which we went over some of the basics—beginning the path to creating a list of colleges. I’m sure we’re all a bit nervous, but we continue to support each other and gain support from the staff around us. I feel as if I couldn’t be in better hands.
The first day of school always feels like an immediate start to the build-up for Special Programs. We are currently about 2 months away from this year's! I’ve loved every single one I’ve done so far, but this year is the one I’m most excited about. This year my Special Program is all about learning how to cook, bake, and make a meal! We will be visiting food festivals and ranches as well as attending cooking classes and more! Some other Special Programs are going to Greece, Cuba, the Pacific Northwest, and the desert! Other groups are learning about birth and death or exploring the vast umbrella term of “STEM” or planning little excursions all over the Bay Area! The staff have been hard at work at making every single Special Program an extraordinary experience.
With junior year comes the new schedule of semester-long Social Studies Electives. All juniors get to choose out of four class options which social studies class they want to take. Last semester I took Asian American Identity through Pop Culture and it was one of my favorite classes I’ve ever taken here. There’s something so exciting about being able to choose and not have a set class you must take (especially when it’s a subject I don’t generally favor).
In my junior year, I’ve been able to step into some leadership roles. The baton of affinity group leader for the Asian Student Union (or, ASU) was handed off to me. And the number of people that attend meetings has more than doubled from last year! Additionally, this year was my first year as a Peer Mentor, a role both juniors and seniors fill. As a Peer Mentor I lead my Contact Group, aid with Orientation, act as a support option for my peers, and work with the other Peer Mentors and our facilitators on improving—as well as providing for—our school and community. I get to help build the Maybeck I want to go to. I love our group and the progress we strive to make. With the new applications starting in April, I’m beginning to urge everyone who can, to apply.
Maybeck has been one of the best experiences for me, and it being the daunting years of high school, makes it that much more meaningful. It is a space where I have found my passions, my people, and am free to bring my full self. We have our setbacks, I have my bouts of drama, being 16 is hard, but the support I find at Maybeck never wavers. And what more can I ask than that?
Dare to Dream
by Toby Theiding ‘24
Tobey Theiding showing off his (barefoot!) skills on the soccer field
Hello!
Wherever you happen to be, I hope you are doing well.
My name is Tobey Theiding, and I’m a senior this year. I’ve definitely given that quite a bit of thought over the past few weeks. I graduate in just over four months, leave home for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia an even shorter four months after, and will quickly be forced to face “real life” head on. However, right now, I am fortunate enough to simply be where I am with the opportunity to slow down and turn around before everything cascades.
My experience at Maybeck has been characterized largely by our Climate Club. Back in sophomore year, I joined the steering committee of an East Bay climate action group (the Climate Positive Student Network). Part of this position included founding a satellite club at Maybeck. With the tremendous help of a classmate and friend, Arlo, we brought what is now Maybeck’s Climate Club to life. (Shoutout to Sadie, too. She joined us in leadership the second year, and I don’t know where we’d be without her.)
Inspired by Maybeck’s academic flexibility, we devised a plan to get traditional classes canceled in favor of student-led, environmental workshops for Earth Day. Our first year of the club, I remember feeling so anxious to ask Bill if we could make the workshop day happen—after all, we were disrupting the regular flow of school. To me, a student who had been in public school for 10 years, this felt like a massive no-no to propose. Yet, we tread on, Bill gave us his unwavering support, and we began to forge our imaginations into reality.
The day is split into three parts: morning workshops, midday speaker, and afternoon workshops. Pretty simple, though curiously complex to organize. As students have come and gone, so too have the types of workshops and speakers that we host. From deconstructing the controversy of nuclear energy (y’all should take a look into this if you have the time) to picking up trash to use for art, we’ve explored so many tremendously nuanced subjects. These days provide students with the opportunity to delve deeper into their own environmental interests, to cultivate their leadership skills, and to leave a mark on the Maybeck community.
In the midst of planning this year’s workshop day, I am enjoying every little bit of my Maybeck swan song. The club has members from each grade, leading and learning side by side, in an amazingly collaborative and supportive atmosphere (even though we meet on Fridays). They have continuously challenged themselves and one another, establishing the pillars upon which those that follow them will do the same. As Climate Club chugs along, fueled by the curiosity and ingenuity of our members, I am proud of what we have accomplished. Never underestimate the capacity of angsty and empowered teenagers.
As I am about to become a has-been, I am excited to see where Climate Club will lead, who will assume the reins, and what magnificent aspirations will fuse with reality. The best part is that, like Maybeck has always done, the club will evolve and grow in curious, unanticipated ways.
Dare to dream.
Tobey Theiding ‘24 (tobeyt@maybeckhs.org)