Perched, and Sat, and Nothing More
Towering canary island pines greet Sequoyah students every morning. Pale yellow light weaves through the trees and illuminates the sullen-seeming ravens as they hobble on classroom roofs. Their shrill voices force sleepy minds awake: “Behold,” the ravens say. These creatures appear by turns somber, majestic, and amusing, giving character to the school environment and plenty of fodder for student musings.
The Barefoot Times’ “Unsolicited Musings and the Like” columnist Lucy Pettit ’26 hums the classic Ramones song “Pet Sematary” as she wonders about the mysterious ravens. Though it is clear that “Pet Sematary” is something of a creepy song, she has more positive associations with the campus ravens. For Pettit, the ravens’ presence brings “unfettered joy and adoration. There’s nothing I love more than seeing a raven,” she said. “All my friends turn into meaningless husks at the sight of one of these avian wonders.” Pettit also pointed to the whereabouts of the campus ravens: “on the roof and in my mind’s eye as I lay down and ponder how beautiful they are.” Meanwhile, Kat Waxman ’26 also notices ravens on the roofs: “They hang out a lot on those roof shingle sticky-outy things.” So, if you’re looking for a campus raven, look up (or into “your mind’s eye”).
The ravens don’t just sit and watch: they munch. The Barefoot Times staff writer Laszlo Stein ’27 recounts that he once saw “this raven just munching on somebody’s lunch. I don’t know if [it] unzipped the lunch or something, but [it] was just… going at that lunch. Like, I felt bad for that lunch.” Stein enjoys watching the ravens and appreciates the “outdoorsy naturey vibe” they bring, but also feels like he’s “in a horror film”–think of The Birds, for example.
In contrast, Pettit and Waxman have more cheery associations with the ravens. Waxman says she feels happy when she sees the ravens because “the ravens are very cool” and they create a “certain aura” at Sequoyah. For Pettit, watching the ravens serves as a pick-me-up. She shared, “You know if I’m sad there are just things I can do to cheer myself up, like eat ice cream or take a hot shower, or watch the SNL sketch that has Timothée Chalamet.” These habits are adjacent to raven watching for her.
Students of Sequoyah (and the wider world where applicable): next time you’re on campus, don’t forget to look for ravens perched on the “roof shingle sticky-outy things!” And when you notice that a raven “still is sitting,” let inspiration lead you to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem that gives the majestic, forbidding raven a starring role.