I don’t want to give away my age, but I was born right after the counterculture movement of the late 60’s. My mom and dad were high school sweethearts. My dad was a star football player, and my mom was on the drill team and into fashion. They evolved quickly with the times and ended up married and at Woodstock just a few years later. I was given the name Gurugian. Growing up with a name that is unusual and hard to pronounce was challenging. I was a shy child and it felt excruciating to be set apart as different. I learned one way to save myself from some embarrassment was to go up to the teacher on the first day of school and tell them how to say my name. Later, my dad’s side of the family started calling me Gigi as a nickname. I liked it and began using it as my name.
It wasn’t until the end of high school that I realized being different had its benefits. It shaped me into who I am. It gave me perspective on what it feels like to not fit into society’s norms. In college, telling the story of my name felt like a badge of honor. When people asked what Gurugian means, I would proudly say, “teacher of wisdom”. The meaning of my name became even more significant to me when I took a work-study teaching position, in the campus childcare center, that led to thirty-four years in early childhood education.
My career and personal experience helped me to understand the importance of all children feeling seen and heard. No child should feel excluded because their experience isn’t recognized by their community. Every person’s story should be honored. I believe God brought me to All Saints’ to continue my growth and live my life’s purpose in service to others. In the early part of my seventeen years at the School, it became a home, and the people a family, to me. The message we share with the children that God loves you, love yourself, and love your neighbor resonates deeply with me. With the baptismal covenant I vowed that with God’s help I would strive for peace and justice for all people and respect the dignity of every human being.
In the book, Dignity: Seven Strategies for Creating Authentic Community, Beth-Sarah Wright talks about the importance of learning each other’s stories, and that recognizing our commonalities is a human imperative, not just a moral or religious imperative. She writes that we must choose courage over comfort and recognize our human capacity for growth and new understanding. My prayer for our school family is that we will learn new ways of being together that nurture a diverse and inclusive community where all children and adults feel engaged, confident, and empowered to be fully themselves and share their stories.
Gigi Khalsa, Head of School