In search of Sara
For once, not my dear friend Sara M. Harvey. If I wish to find the Glitter Lady, I'm pretty sure she's still taking my calls. So is Sarah Sanford, despite the number of times I've killed her in print.
A few months ago, I bought a used book off Amazon's independent sellers. It was a novelization of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Far Beyond the Stars," which is of course very out of print. It arrived today - yeah, those guys take a while - and carried with it an extra surprise.
I flipped through the pages, and a laminated card fell out. It was a student ID for a Sara Beatty-Knudsen, who attended the Vancouver School of Arts & Academics. It's dated 1996-97, and she appears to be of middle-school age from the photo. She was part of "MS Team 3," which to me confirms middle school and using the team-teaching concept.
A little internet searching shows that the school is not in Canada, as I expected, but in Vancouver, Wash. It's still operating today as a magnet school for students of the arts, and thus, exactly the sort of place over which I would have turned backflips when I was a girl.
A girl like Sara, who was no more than twelve and yet reading novelizations from Deep Space Nine's best episode.
By my math, Sara is about 10 years younger than I am. A few more internet searches reveal that Sara and her family moved to Tucson, Ariz. for her high school years, and she graduated from Canyon Del Oro High School in 2003.
Unfortunately, that's where the trail goes cold, unless I were to spend money or abuse my position as a reporter. The other Sara Beattys I could find were the wrong age (like the 17-year-old aspiring author in Maryland or the 40-plus indexer); there are no further references to Sara Beatty-Knudsen, which implies at some point she dropped the hyphenation.
I did find a Sara Beatty of apparently the right age who is a photographer, but she said alas, she is not the object of my search; Beatty is her married name.
Oh, and Sara's middle name is Elizabeth, if I'm not mistaken.
Why go to all this trouble? In part, because curiosity is part of my job description, and hunting for things on the internet is my idea of fun. In part, because young Sara reminds me of ME when I was her age, albeit 10 years earlier. I would have given body parts to attend an arts school, and I wonder what it was like for her to leave that school and go to a regular high school in Tucson instead.
And, of course, I'd like to return her ID. It's a little piece of her history, and she deserves to have it back. She'd be about 30 now, and probably has long forgotten Vancouver School of Arts & Academics and "Far Beyond the Stars." But maybe a little trip down Nostalgia Lane would be a nice thing for her.
Anyone out there know Sara Beatty-Knudsen? I've got something for her.
A few months ago, I bought a used book off Amazon's independent sellers. It was a novelization of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Far Beyond the Stars," which is of course very out of print. It arrived today - yeah, those guys take a while - and carried with it an extra surprise.
I flipped through the pages, and a laminated card fell out. It was a student ID for a Sara Beatty-Knudsen, who attended the Vancouver School of Arts & Academics. It's dated 1996-97, and she appears to be of middle-school age from the photo. She was part of "MS Team 3," which to me confirms middle school and using the team-teaching concept.
A little internet searching shows that the school is not in Canada, as I expected, but in Vancouver, Wash. It's still operating today as a magnet school for students of the arts, and thus, exactly the sort of place over which I would have turned backflips when I was a girl.
A girl like Sara, who was no more than twelve and yet reading novelizations from Deep Space Nine's best episode.
By my math, Sara is about 10 years younger than I am. A few more internet searches reveal that Sara and her family moved to Tucson, Ariz. for her high school years, and she graduated from Canyon Del Oro High School in 2003.
Unfortunately, that's where the trail goes cold, unless I were to spend money or abuse my position as a reporter. The other Sara Beattys I could find were the wrong age (like the 17-year-old aspiring author in Maryland or the 40-plus indexer); there are no further references to Sara Beatty-Knudsen, which implies at some point she dropped the hyphenation.
I did find a Sara Beatty of apparently the right age who is a photographer, but she said alas, she is not the object of my search; Beatty is her married name.
Oh, and Sara's middle name is Elizabeth, if I'm not mistaken.
Why go to all this trouble? In part, because curiosity is part of my job description, and hunting for things on the internet is my idea of fun. In part, because young Sara reminds me of ME when I was her age, albeit 10 years earlier. I would have given body parts to attend an arts school, and I wonder what it was like for her to leave that school and go to a regular high school in Tucson instead.
And, of course, I'd like to return her ID. It's a little piece of her history, and she deserves to have it back. She'd be about 30 now, and probably has long forgotten Vancouver School of Arts & Academics and "Far Beyond the Stars." But maybe a little trip down Nostalgia Lane would be a nice thing for her.
Anyone out there know Sara Beatty-Knudsen? I've got something for her.
I'd forgotten that they made an novelization of this episode. *heads to Amazon*
ReplyDeleteI knew Sara from the VSAA and I was trying to look up a mutual friend of ours when I found this site. I haven't spoken to her in 15 years. As I recall, she moved to Phoenix during middle school and her parents were deaf. Maybe that will help you identify the right Sara.
ReplyDeleteShe was very nice and I'm sure that she'll appreciate your effort to contact her.
And by the way, the VSAA was still sort of a public school. Students were enrolled on a recommendation basis (by their public school teacher), but it didn't cost money like a private school. It was a great school and I'd bet that she has very fond memories of it.
ReplyDelete