Be You

BY JULIAN BULL
You may have missed a great article in the Daily Herald in December titled, “Why the Balls might not be the best basketball family in Los Angeles.” Sports reporter Mike McGraw has a keen eye for the understated power behind the reserved, gracious, centered personalities of the members of the Holiday family, students, and teachers at Campbell Hall for decades. McGraw is less kind to other local players and families who seem to have lost their way in the fight for playing time and fame, but there’s a beautiful moment in the article where Justin Holiday ‘07 refuses to be drawn into making odious comparisons between the Holiday brothers and other local balling families: “They are themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that to me. Be you. That’s the best thing you can really do in life.”
Los Angeles is a power center with some of the world’s most accomplished people in all walks of life, and Campbell Hall is a microcosm of our bedazzling city. It is a temptation peculiar to young people in cities like this to lose themselves as they seek to become the next great athlete, actor, or tycoon. Maybe they are called to such achievement; maybe not. They are all called to greatness as children of God, but greatness comes in many forms, some more subtle than others. The best any of us can do, is to be ourselves; the best (and sometimes most difficult) thing we can do as parents is to let our children truly be themselves as they move through this academic, artistic, social, personal journey.

The songwriter David Wilcox wrote a beautiful song for this season called “Waiting for a Miracle” in which he chides those who ignored the bright Epiphany star and just went back to bed. Yet “right outside my window, quiet as can be, all that time making up my mind, the angels wait for me.” Once we are truly comfortable being ourselves, or letting our children follow the beat of the God-given soundtrack playing their constant background music, there are angels ready to join in. There are friends seen and unseen lending helping hands in the community of inquiry. No need to wait for miracles, try to be someone else, or hack the system; just be you. That’s the best thing you can really do in life.


  Follow Julian on Twitter @cannonbull


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  • Head of School Julian Bull

    Follow on Twitter 
     @cannonbull


    Canon Bull earned his Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, his Master’s in Philosophy from Boston College, and his Master’s in Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. He is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. Prior to joining Campbell Hall in 2003, Canon Bull served as Head of Trinity Episcopal School in New Orleans and as the Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, Dean of Students, Chair of the Diversity Committee, and Director of the Senior Humanities Program at Albuquerque Academy. He has served on the Boards of the National Association of Episcopal Schools, the Independent School Association of the Southwest, St. James’ Episcopal School, the Louisiana Children’s Museum, the Steering Committee for the Los Angeles School Heads, the Studio City Neighborhood Council, and has chaired the last two search committees for bishops of Los Angeles. He currently serves as the Chair of the Commission on Schools of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the Board of the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education. He and his wife Katie have enjoyed raising their two sons as 13-year Campbell Hall students. Canon Bull enjoys tennis, hiking, and playing bridge in his spare time.
4533 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Studio City, CA 91607
Phone 818.980.7280

Campbell Hall is an independent, Episcopal, K-12 all gender day school. We are a community of inquiry committed to academic excellence and to the nurturing of decent, loving, and responsible human beings.
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