To Be Seen

On my flight to the Mars College community in Bombay Beach, I was reading Educated, a nonfiction memoir about growing up in a strict Mormon household and fighting toward education and self-definition. Before that flight, I knew almost nothing about Mormonism and even less about Nevada; the landscapes in the book felt distant, almost fictional. Then one night at Mars College, Summer came up to me and asked, “Do you know Mormonism? ” I said yes—only through that book. She said she had a story to share—about escaping Mormonism. And suddenly, the kind of story I had just been reading was no longer on the page. It was standing right beside me.

As I shared with our community the story of my mother raising chickens on an apartment terrace in China—where they had to choose between staying safe or taking a risky leap into the unknown—Charlie told me that he had a similar “chicken moment.”

I’ve lived in New York City for over ten years, so I’ve always seen the East Hampton world as this... rigid, almost unreachable fortress for the elite.But that stereotype totally vanished when I met 'Chef Catherine' at Mars College. She was always in the kitchen—professional, focused—just making sure everyone was fed. To me, she felt like the adult version of the kids I’d read about in the book, I Left My Homework in the Hamptons—like someone who had finally decided to break her pre-written script.We really bonded over a story I shared with our community about my mother raising chickens on a 32nd-floor terrace in China. See, those chickens had to choose: they could stay in the safety of their cage—the limited space of the terrace—or take a risky leap into the unknown for a chance at something open and new.Catherine told me she was facing her own 'chicken moment. 'So today, we explore what happens when you’re already at the top... and you decide that the only way to truly find yourself is to jump.