Hopkinton High School freshman Leah Raczynski was recently recommended by a school guidance counselor to be a participant in an interview for Meet Your Neighbor. Raczynski had been interviewed back in the winter by a Hopkinton Crier reporter before embarking on a distant trip to India with the Mission of Peace Youth Organization. Six months later, when asked to meet to talk about her trip and her life, Raczynski suggested meeting at one of her favorite Hopkinton locations, Lake Whitehall. The interview took place on a warm, sunny day back in June.
Leah, I know you suggested meeting here at Lake Whitehall on this beautiful day. I was wondering if we could start off by your telling me about your connection to this area?
I just have a lot of good memories here. I have a lot of friends who live around here and I've spent a lot of time in and around Lake Whitehall canoeing and fishing when I was younger. I don't really fish anymore because I'm a vegetarian...I dont like to stab fish in the mouth. I just have a lot of good memories like the Whitehall clean-up. My best friends live on the lake and I just think it's a beautiful place and a great place to have in town.
How long have you lived here in Hopkinton?
All my life.
How many years is that?
Fifteen.
And you went to the Hopkinton Schools all of your years as well?
(smiles) Yep.
I know you were recommended by someone at the high school for this interview and it sounds like you are involved with a lot of things in and out of school...so I was wondering what you have been doing in addition to studying hard at school? Now you are on summer break ...what do you do in your spare time when you are not studying at school?
Well, I'm in the drama club. I was in the musical and I helped out with the play and I was in the one act play festival. That's just been something that I've been doing my whole life and so that is a big chunk of my time. And there's the drama club. I've met a lot of good friends there too. I'm not in a lot of clubs at school because I had to cut back and prioritize this year but one of my really favorite things is philosophy club...it meets every Friday with Mr. Sullivan in one of the Psych. teachers rooms and it's just a really great place at school because we talk about so many things and have such wonderful conversations with all sorts of people at school and that's what I've been doing on Fridays. And I have some friends who make films and so I was in one of the senior project films this year which is a great experience and I can't wait until I start making my own. It will be really fun and cool.
I know you were quite famous when the play To Kill a Mockingbird was in town...and I heard you did a wonderful job back then in middle school.
Yeah I was in 7th grade...That was probably my favorite role. (laughs)...it's kind of cool that people will say "Hey ...that's Scout!"
And you have also found music in your life or has music been with you ever since you were little?
Yes I started with my church choir when I was two years old.
Whoa! What did you do then?
I think you had to be five to join but my brother was in it and I'd come to all of the rehearsals and I learned the songs and so the director said "Ah...you can join".... (laughs) and then, when I was in second grade they also had a handbell choir...do you know what handbells are? Well if anyone doesn't know...they were first developed for people who would ring big churchbells to practice with. They are small and have a handle and each bell has a note and you have a choir of them and each person has a couple of bells. One person can play a bunch of bells but normally you have maybe two and six and everyone gets together and makes a song and it's one of my favorite things. I've been doing it a long time. It's pretty cool. You can play all sorts of songs.
And you are still in the singing choir as well?
Not really because they dont really have a teen choir. I sing at church...I sang yesterday with my guitar.
And you sing at other places out in the world ?
Yes at open mics and stuff...its been a very good experience...good for getting used to performing ...just myself and my guitar. I mean I have performed in front of people I dont know plenty of times but it's a different kind of thing to perform my own stuff ...my own music.
When did you start performing your music?
Well, last year is when I started writing songs but I did my first open mic this year and now I feel like I've been doing it forever Actually, the first time I performed ...just me and my guitar, it was at a school event for a club called beFree and they host events ...one of them being coffeehouses and other performances like that. So I performed in the winter time ...or fall...and it was so much fun. I just love it. It's probably my favorite way to perform because there's just something really comfortable about it and I can just be myself and play my music...it's good.
Do you think it's a good thing to have open mics going on around here?
Definitely. And I think the ESL open mic is a really great thing. But I've found they have open mics every night of the week all over the place if you can find them.
Well it's great you keep going out there and sharing your songs. I was wondering if you could share one with us now? I know you taught your self guitar...
Well to a certain point. I taught myself up until this year. I taught myself chords and the notes and basics and then I got a teacher to teach me more...the fine skills.
How about your harmonica...how did you learn?
Well, it's pretty easy...you just kind of blow into it ...It's the key of C...so as long as I play anything in the key of C...it will sound nice. (laughs) I'm not a professional harmonica player...I just kind of work with it. This is a song I wrote... quite some time ago and it's called "Blame it on the Weather."
Those were beautiful words...meaningful words and guitar and harmonica...and I noticed in your singing a little of a sound of Indian music in there. Which makes me want to talk about your recent trip to India. You were in the Hopkinton Crier newspaper a while back...being interviewed about this trip. It was a big deal for others to hear about this and certainly for you and I was wondering if we could talk a few minutes about that...it happened this past year?
Yes in the winter...over New Years for about 2 and 1/2 weeks.
What spurred that trip for you over to India?
One day, I got an email about this trip called "The Mission of Peace" and it's through the Greater United Methodist Church and they were going to India! And I thought...Whoa...that's awesome! and I wanted to go there but I really didn't want to go with my parents. I wanted to go when I could experience it by myself and it looked like the perfect opportunity because...if you have heard of the organization called People to People...It's kind of like that...a trip where you go to see the country as a whole and try to understand. We didn't really do touristy things, we had lots of connections because the trip goes to a different country every year and its been going on since 1984 and they had been to India 5 times. There's a Bishop from New Jersey who grew up in India and has all sorts of friends there...so I just got to meet so many people and experience so many wonderful things and one of the main purposes of the trip is to educate people when you come back. I had to raise $5000 and one of the ways I did that was I had different groups of people in churches in New England sponsor me...and so I came back and did presentations about my trip and basically it's to raise awareness and try to get rid of stereotypes and make global citizens of young people.
So what is one of the primary points/messages that you brought back from your trip, for people to be aware of here in Hopkinton?
I've kind of struggled a lot with this in making presentations and to verbalize what I have seen. ...but it's such a complex place. It's a lot like America in that it's like a melting pot...there are so many different groups of people there and so many different walks of life and to me...it's a beautiful place...so many things are decorated like from cars and houses and animals and people. It is just so full of life and so many people.
Did you get to hear a lot of people's life stories over there?
Definitely...we stayed with people just like us. We stayed with a family where the mother and father owned a pharmaceutical business and they have kids our age and they basically have a similar life and then there are people who have completely different lives. You know... like we spent some time at orphanages and places like that and there are people who are Christians and Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs and Buddhists all different kinds of people and we got to see some different religious places and it was just really eye-opening.
Did you get to see more rural parts of the country as well?
Definitely. I think it was a really great trip because we got to see all different walks of life ...not just one part of India... but I mean we were in the heart of the city and then we were in the desert and then we were in the jungle and ...all over the place.
That's sounds like a big trip and you covered a lot of ground...literally and otherwise.
Literally yes...we had long bus rides and were in some of the most rural villages and then to the heart of the city and even the second day we were there... we went to the Juhu slums where Slumdog Millionaire was actually filmed. We met children and people there ...and you know it's such a complex atmosphere...I guess it's not really how Slumdog Millionaire portrayed it. And the scenes from the beginning with the main character...lived there when he was a child but that was 30 years ago in the 70s and of course, it's not a good living condition but many people want to stay there because it's their home and they have businesses they have families and communities. The government is building new apartment buildings...but there is always dispute over being able to get a room because you have to have certain papers...it's kind of a mess there but when you just walk through the small, little streets... there are children and all sorts of smells and flowers and incense and food and smiles...and so it is quite a contrast ...it's hard to make a judgment.
I understand you are interested in going back there in the future. Do you have ideas for future work there?
Anytime...Oh there is so much to do there...anything I can really...anything...I have no preference (laughs)
Well it sounds like a special, very meaningful experience that came into your path...(the Mission of Peace into India). And now...if you had one wish for the world...do you have any idea...of what to wish for...how it could be a better place? I know that is a really big question...maybe you cover questions like this in philosophy club sometimes?
Personally I think that violence is frankly stupid (laughs). I understand that people are always going to have disagreements and disputes and people are always going to get angry at each other and we cant really stop that because we all think differently but... to use violence...it's never helped anything.
Thank you Leah...how about something closer to home...it's summer vacation time...what are you planning to do this summer?
Spend time with my friends...go to the Cape and the North Shore and go to New York City with my friend. And then the big thing is that a couple of my friends whom I went to India with....and the leaders will go to a a monastery commune in Central France and I'm really excited that I am going to go and spend a week there. That will be exciting. It's a really, really cool place...because young people from all over the world come there to find peace.
Being in France in that community sounds like a really good thing to look forward to. Thank you so much for this interview today. I have one more thing to ask and that is if you can send us off with a song? (To see the performance of this song, watch the online interview at http://www.hcam.tv/series/meetyourneighbor/video.shtml).
