Marilyn Ahun and Sarah Christman (La Chât, 2012)

Like many school friendships, Marilyn and Sarah (both La Chât, 2012) bonded over laughter. To be precise, as Marilyn describes, the girls forged a kinship one day in 2007 when Sarah was pretending that her hand was laughing instead of working on an assignment during English class with Mrs Mackenzie. After this random, yet serendipitous fit of laughter, they became best friends despite the fact that they only had a few classes in common since Marilyn was in the bilingual section and Sarah was in the English section.

When we spoke, Marilyn was in Montreal and recently completed a PhD in Public Health and Sarah, who works with kids with long-term disabilities in schools in the US, was in Spain where she just finished the arduous Way of St James pilgrimage route. But the two young women still giggle like schoolgirls when they remember all the sleepovers they had during their Ecolint years. Their first one was in Year 10 after attending the annual fashion show. In the end, the sleepover involved no sleep at all and the girls pulled their first all-nighter, chatting into the wee hours of the morning. These sleepovers became increasingly common in their final years since Marilyn’s mother travelled a lot for work, which meant she and her sister were allowed to stay with Sarah’s family. After Ecolint, they both went to McGill University, where they spent four amazing years. 

Both Sarah and Marilyn remember their teachers who had such an impact on their lives: Mr Heery, Mr Wingate, Mr Stahl, Señora Smith-Gillespie...to name a few. Working in high schools in the US, Sarah realised the quality of the teachers they had at Ecolint. For example, languages are “taught by real native speakers.” Marilyn is still in touch with some of her teachers and even invited them to watch her thesis defence.

They both miss the quietness of La Châtaigneraie campus but not the smell of the fields when the cows came out to pasture after the long winter. As often with Ecolintians, they now live in two different countries but they speak very regularly. A three hour-long phone call can pass in the blink of an eye. Their last physical meet-up was in San Luis Obispo in 2018 and the inseparable pair is planning to see each other in Boston at Christmas. Marilyn is moving to the area to do a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and Sarah will be visiting her sister who lives there. We hope the trip is filled with fits of uncontrollable laughter!

Like many school friendships, Marilyn and Sarah (both La Chât, 2012) bonded over laughter. To be precise, as Marilyn describes, the girls forged a kinship one day in 2007 when Sarah was pretending that her hand was laughing instead of working on an assignment during English class with Mrs Mackenzie. After this random, yet serendipitous fit of laughter, they became best friends despite the fact that they only had a few classes in common since Marilyn was in the bilingual section and Sarah was in the English section.

When we spoke, Marilyn was in Montreal and recently completed a PhD in Public Health and Sarah, who works with kids with long-term disabilities in schools in the US, was in Spain where she just finished the arduous Way of St James pilgrimage route. But the two young women still giggle like schoolgirls when they remember all the sleepovers they had during their Ecolint years. Their first one was in Year 10 after attending the annual fashion show. In the end, the sleepover involved no sleep at all and the girls pulled their first all-nighter, chatting into the wee hours of the morning. These sleepovers became increasingly common in their final years since Marilyn’s mother travelled a lot for work, which meant she and her sister were allowed to stay with Sarah’s family. After Ecolint, they both went to McGill University, where they spent four amazing years. 

Both Sarah and Marilyn remember their teachers who had such an impact on their lives: Mr Heery, Mr Wingate, Mr Stahl, Señora Smith-Gillespie...to name a few. Working in high schools in the US, Sarah realised the quality of the teachers they had at Ecolint. For example, languages are “taught by real native speakers.” Marilyn is still in touch with some of her teachers and even invited them to watch her thesis defence.

They both miss the quietness of La Châtaigneraie campus but not the smell of the fields when the cows came out to pasture after the long winter. As often with Ecolintians, they now live in two different countries but they speak very regularly. A three hour-long phone call can pass in the blink of an eye. Their last physical meet-up was in San Luis Obispo in 2018 and the inseparable pair is planning to see each other in Boston at Christmas. Marilyn is moving to the area to do a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and Sarah will be visiting her sister who lives there. We hope the trip is filled with fits of uncontrollable laughter!