As words come to you, you start to fill up a journal page, planting the seed of a poem. The words weave themselves together, and you spend hours, days, weeks and even months sitting with the poem and nurturing it. When it’s ready, you set it free, letting it grow under the sun of new readers. This journey is one that Sarah Mohammed (12) experiences frequently, and she appreciates the comfort and satisfaction that creating poetry provides. 

“I just try to open myself to my surroundings as much as I can, and then the poem forms for me,” Sarah said. “I start writing out the image on paper, seeing where it goes. When I first start, I don’t know exactly where the poem is going to go, and then there’s this point where it unlocks, which always amazes me.”

Though Sarah has always felt a deep connection to writing and language, she noted that her writing of poetry expanded during the pandemic. With ample quiet and reflective time at home, she used poetry as a way to connect to her ancestry. 

“I write a lot about where I come from, stories my mom told me about her childhood and my own experience growing up here,” Sarah said. “During a period of time where I wasn’t going home to India to my family, writing was very transportive for me. I could access my community through writing about them.”

Her poetry not only acts as a portal to her community and heritage, but also allows her to look inwards and reflect on herself and her identity. In her writing, she explores the themes of family and migration, as well as familial and matrilineal generational teachings. Through creating poetry, Sarah hopes to honor her parents’ journey and the ways in which their journey has influenced her upbringing.   

“I’m just always really amazed by what my parents have done, and their life to me is so unfathomable,” Sarah said. “They were the first in their community to travel out of the country. Learning from the way they’ve survived and the way they’re making a life out of their experiences, that’s something I’m always learning from them. Something I want to honor as I go to college and live my life here is that I will always be a product of their experiences and their relentless journey.”

It took time for Sarah to fully embrace the vulnerable self she poured into her personal, reflective poetry. Over time, however, Sarah has learned to bring that vulnerability from her writing to her daily interactions with people, and close friend Jessica Tang (12), who grew closer to Sarah during sophomore year, notices and appreciates Sarah’s willingness to do so.  

“Some of her strengths that I see now, I think she saw as weaknesses in the past, like for example, being comfortable feeling vulnerable,” Jessica said. “Over time, she learned to be comfortable with being vulnerable, and she was able to also translate that into poetry and writing, and it’s one of her strengths.”

Though Sarah has written numerous poems, the time she devotes to each one, from planting its first seeds to helping it grow into full form, allows her to form a deep, personal connection with it.

“When you look at a poem so deeply, and you spend time with something so small, it taught me what care was, and it taught me that I want to give care,” Sarah said. “[Poetry] taught me a lot about giving time in my creative work, but also just with my friends. I want to give time to the space I share with them. For my literary friendships, or when I’m helping a young writer, I think a lot about that idea of care.”

Close friend Amiya Chokhawala (12), who has known Sarah since fifth grade, also sees this care extend to Sarah’s friendships. Amiya appreciates Sarah’s willingness to always empathize with others and imbue care into everything she does. 

“She’s very sweet,” Amiya said. “She really understands people’s emotions really well, and when she doesn’t, she tries really hard to understand them, which I think is unique to her. It’s really hard to put yourself in someone else’s position, even if you don’t relate to them at all, and try to understand, and that takes a lot of effort so I really admire her for doing that.” 

Close friend Tiffany Chang (12), who has known Sarah since elementary school, also appreciates Sarah’s willingness to follow her true passions, as her bravery and dedication will undoubtedly encourage younger students to follow in her footsteps.   

“By going out and doing what truly interests her, she was able to chart new routes for other people, because I’m sure other people are going to be inspired by the depths she’s gone to with poetry and writing and follow in her path,” Tiffany said. “And at a more personal level, I’ve just seen her confidence blossom through writing.”

Sarah’s poetry and the themes she explores through her writing are inherently personal, but as she shares her work with the world, she brings the lessons that she’s learned from poetry to her daily life. Throughout high school, she has also explored other forms of writing, such as journalism. After growing from a reporter to assistant features editor, then to features editor and now to Winged Post co-editor-in-chief, she appreciates her learning journey through journalism, and she aims to bring both care and grace to her role. 

“I heard a quote once: ‘Err on the side of love,’” Sarah said. “The word ‘err’ comes from the Latin that means ‘to wander.’ I always think about this idea of wandering on the side of love, choosing to see the good things, and believing in goodness. Writing made me aware of how to do that for myself and my family, to see the good side. With journalism, it’s like, ‘How do I embody that care in my leadership practice? How do I lead gracefully?’”

Journalistic writing and poetry are only two of the various avenues that writing offers, and Sarah also explores writing in more of a scholarly, academic setting. In her junior year, Sarah applied for the Near Mitra research grant program, and over the course of her senior year, she researched how Warsan Shire’s poetry and Michel Foucault’s panopticon model connect to contemporary Muslim surveillance in Nairobi. Throughout her research journey, Sarah deeply appreciates the mentorship she has received from upper school English teacher Nicholas Manjoine and upper school library director and Near Mitra co-director Lauri Vaughan. 

“My mentors have given such gravity to my ideas,” Sarah said. “They’ve been so immensely generous and nurturing with their time with me. That’s something I discovered about Near Mitra, that [it’s] not just the actual research, but also just someone giving so much weight to your ideas, and having a scholarly conversation with people who want to make space for your creative thinking.”

To some, it may seem that journalism and academic, research-based writing share little in common with poetry, but through exploring Shire’s poetry and bringing her poetic style of writing to her Near Mitra project, Sarah sees strong connections between poetry and research. 

“It makes me realize that there’s so much space for poetry, even in an academic context,” Sarah said. “I’m really enjoying it, and I think I’m finding aspects of that poetry everywhere I go. A lot of poetry becomes poetic thinking for me. It kind of seeps into other areas of my life. I feel grateful [for] that.”

Upper school Latin and world history teacher Clifford Hull, who has taught Sarah all throughout high school, admires her generous, giving nature and feels excited to see all that she will accomplish as she brings her kindness, care and talent with her to college and beyond. 

“She’s an old soul living in the 21st century, and I know that she will achieve great things,” Hull said. “I’ve always said that one day I’ll be able to boast and say, ‘I knew Sarah Mohammed when she was in high school.’ There’s really no advice I can give to her because she is just [such a] solid and incredible lady.”

Sarah’s loving nature touches the lives of everyone she interacts with, and the care, vulnerability and grace which she applies to her friendships and leadership all share a common root: poetry.

“I will spend many hours just writing one line of a poem, and that line might not even go anywhere; it might not even become a poem,” Sarah said. “I learned to not treat time as wasted, but to treat it as care and energy that I’m sharing with the page. This translated into my life with not feeling guilty about spending extra time on something: these are moments where I was present fully, and I was immersed in my experience enough for it to last and extend beyond what I thought it would be. I’m learning to see that as a beautiful thing.”