Upper school English teacher Bonnie Seebold injured her wrist causing her to take last year off from teaching. She was able to recover and picked herself back up, doing many things during the rest of the year off.

“At first it was hard to do many things such as showering and even eating food,” Seebold said.  “I lost a lot weight because I couldn’t cook.”  She had to rely on the help of many of her friends who as Seebold notes, had to do everyday tasks for her that she was incapable of doing.

“I was very unhappy being away from Parker,” Seebold said.  “I became depressed for quite a while, but I got help,  and around April I began to feel better both mentally and physically.”

The injury occurred when she was putting a glass in her dishwasher, and it shattered. The glass cut her right wrist and severed three tendons. It also partially severed the median nerve in her hand.

Since she had not done much during the first nine months she was off, she wanted to do as much as she could with the rest of her time.  

Seebold was named to the board of Chicago Youth Shakespeare (CYS), founded by Parker alum Manon Spardor. CYS gets teens from all over Chicago, from different socioeconomic groups, to connect through Shakespeare. Currently two Parker students, Nina Sachs and Jolie Davidson, perform and uphold membership in CYS. Seebold supports and helps out there frequently, and did so even more so during her time off. She recently helped with the production of “Julius Caesar” performed this past summer.

“I had a lot of lost time to make up for, practically nine whole months,” Seebold said, “so after I felt better,  I traveled all around.”  She traveled to the Sierra Nevadas, Maine, New Hampshire, France, Italy, and Santa Fe and visited friends who had helped her get through her injury.

Seebold did a number of things during her travels. She swam in the Mediterranean and shopped at markets in France and Italy.  In New Hampshire, Maine, and Sierra Nevada she went hiking in the mountains.

She also went to two operas in Santa Fe that she enjoyed. One of them was called “Cold Mountain,” originally a novel by Charles Frazier written in 1997, turned into a movie and now an opera. It is about a confederate soldier during the civil war who runs away in search of his beloved girlfriend, but because he deserted the battlefield, he gets hunted throughout the story.

“The New York Times critics didn’t give the opera good reviews,” Seebold said, “but everyone in the audience loved it!”

Seebold is ecstatic about coming back to Parker. Despite the fact that her wrist still has some limitations. There isn’t much feeling in her fingertips, so it’s difficult to type because she cannot feel whether or not she is pressing down hard enough.

Luckily a former student, Henry Cutler, and technology director Peter Evans, were able to create a solution for her: a laser keyboard.  The appearance and uniqueness of the laser keyboard was so appealing that a student had filmed her typing on it, and posted it onto Chicago’s Snapchat story, which was seen by tens of thousands of people.

This was not the first time Seebold took a year off. She took a sabbatical in the 2000-2001 school year and went to Antarctica.  

“It was incredible,” Seebold said. “I went on a ship with 150 people- one was even an astronaut who had landed on the moon. There are no people who live in Antarctica so that in itself is unusual. I saw such beauty there.” She stayed there for a few months during Antarctica’s summer, our winter, so the temperatures weren’t so cold.

Seebold was missed when she was gone last year, but her colleagues and friends at Parker are glad to have her back. “I’m so happy my next door neighbor is back,” Upper School English teacher Cory Zeller said. “I really missed her warmth, knowledge, passion, and camaraderie. To quote her favorite Shakespeare play, ‘The Tempest.’ I would not wish any colleague in the world but her.”

Freshman Sasha Zhukova, a student in her 9th grade class, is also happy with Seebold’s return. “I’m really glad I’m able to have Ms. Seebold as my English teacher this year,” Zhukova said. “Even though it’s only the beginning of the year, I feel like I have learned a lot.”  Seebold will continue to teach at Parker until she decides the time is right.  

“I thought I was ready to retire, but I’m not. I guess I’ll just keep teaching and die in the classroom right between the words ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” Seebold said.