Margot Sweeney Traces Her Tropical Roots
NEIRAD enilno edition
At the end of the summer most students were not overly thrilled about leaving the sun and hitting the books. For one freshman, she wasn’t leaving a vacation at the beach: she was leaving behind a life.
Margot Sweeney moved from her home in the Virgin Islands on the island of St. Thomas and moved to Darien this past summer. The move came when her mom took a job as the chief financial officer (CFO) of North American Power and Gas in Norwalk.
“[I was] excited because it would be a new experience and the school would be great. I would have more opportunities for classes I like. Most of all, I would get to see snow again. Also [I was] sad because I would be leaving my friends, the small community with a very different culture, the 180 degree view of the water from my house, the warm weather and the beautiful blue and green ocean,” Margot said.
Margot has lived on the Island of St. Thomas for almost seven years. Before that she lived in Larchmont, N.Y. St. Thomas is an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It is 13 miles long and three miles wide.
Life in the tropics isn’t necessarily the stereotypical image one imagines. It isn’t solely about spending days surfing and hanging outside smoothie shops. “We don’t go to the beach as often as you would think,” Margot said.
Margot said one big difference between her former school, Antilles School, and DHS is the size. Antilles was nowhere near as big as the Blue Wave. Her old school was for preschool to 12th grade. She had 40 kids in her class and there were 600 kids in the entire school. The routine at Antilles also wasn’t the same. Instead of having snow days, there were hurricane days. There also was no cafeteria. Unless it was raining everyone would eat outside. And, to get from class to class students had to walk outside.
Another big change is the sports scene. Margot’s old school did not have lacrosse. Sports on the water took precedence in St. Thomas. One kid in her town even received a gold medal in sailing at the Junior Olympics.
St. Thomas to a local is much different than the tourists’ experience. For example, when there isn’t a cruise parked in the harbor the downtown shuts down. Margot said locals learn to become adept at avoiding tourist-clogged areas. Locals know where to go, where not to go, and when to go there. For instance, if a boat comes on Monday, locals would want to go to the grocery store by Tuesday before the shelves are nearly bare. There is also a beach called Magens Bay. The locals know that the tourists are dropped off on the right side of this beach. The locals head to the left. The prime tourist time to visit is in the winter. Meanwhile, Margot says the locals are spoiled and they say that the winter months aren’t the most desirable because “we find it chilly.”
Before she moved here Margot would come to the States each summer. She said one thing she always did was school shopping. That’s one thing you can’t get in St. Thomas is name brand clothes. While there are big box stores such as K-Mart or Home Depot. Margot prefers to shop at malls back in the U.S. Even stores that shipped online often wouldn’t deliver to the island. However, one store that she did like to shop at on St. Thomas was a surf shop called Caribbean Surf Co. The style on St. Thomas basically consisted of T-shirts, shorts and flip flops.
In St. Thomas, Margot sailed a bit, did a lot of photography, and played volleyball. Now she is a member of the freshmen volleyball team and hopes to get back into photography. “I’m glad to be a part of the volleyball team because it gave me a chance to get to know people and everyone has been very welcoming and helpful.”
