When people think of New Hampshire, they usually think of granite, mountains, old white
churches, town greens and long winters. When I think of New Hampshire, I think of our people. I think of the feeling of growing up somewhere where history is not locked away behind museum glass. I think about the feeling of growing up somewhere that teaches you who you are before you are old enough to realize it.

I spent almost my entire childhood in Concord. Every important version of myself exists somewhere in this city. The awkward middle schooler wandering Main Street after school beneath strings of glowing lights. The nervous freshman trying to figure out who he wanted to become. The kid at the Concord Community Music School performing at recitals, hands shaking before walking onstage, discovering that playing guitar could make life feel bigger, brighter and more meaningful.

I think about early mornings rowing on the Merrimack with Concord Crew, the river covered in fog while the oars cut clean lines through the water. Some mornings the river felt silver and still; other mornings the current churned dark beneath us after rain. Watching the seasons change from the water taught me how slowly life transforms without you noticing. Green summer banks fading into fiery October trees, then bare branches outlined against cold winter skies.

The older I get, the more I realize how lucky I was to grow up in a place like Concord. It is not loud about what it offers you. Instead, it gives you something more lasting: community. A kind of closeness that settles into you over time until it becomes part of the way you move through the world.

Some of my strongest memories are simple ones. Walking downtown at sunset when the brick buildings glowed orange in the summer light. The smell of old wood, clay and paint inside Kimball Jenkins after shaping it into a small cup with my hands. Hearing music drift down the halls at the music school before a recital, notes echoing softly through the worn staircases. Sitting outside during Market Days while the streets filled with food vendors, kids running around with lion and fairy face paint, and musicians playing songs that bounced between the old buildings late into the evening air.

There is something deeply comforting about a city that respects its own history. Concord has always felt alive with memory to me. The old houses, white church steeples and worn wooden floors in certain buildings remind you that generations of people have passed through before you. It feels like people here understand that preserving history is care. They protect what matters because they believe future generations deserve to experience it too.

I think that shaped me more than I realized at the time.

New Hampshire taught me to slow down enough to notice things. The sound of leaves moving in the woods by my house. Snow falling silently outside during the winter, making the entire world pause for a moment. Long walks downtown where you somehow always recognized someone. Even the “between places” mattered: the trails, forests, rivers and back roads that reminded you the world was larger than your own worries.

As a senior in high school, I’m getting ready to leave for Dartmouth College this fall, and it doesn’t feel like I’m stepping away from home so much as moving deeper into it. I chose Dartmouth because it’s still rooted in the same landscape that shaped me. The woods, the cold rivers, the long winters and the quiet sense of space that feels so distinctly New Hampshire. Growing up in Concord, so many of the people I met, families at the YMCA, volunteers at the planetarium, friends of friends, teachers and mentors, seemed to have some connection back to Dartmouth, as if it were part of the state’s shared geography rather than something separate from it. Because of that, it already felt present in my life long before I applied. Leaving for Hanover feels like a continuation: not like leaving home, but like walking along the same trails I’ve always known, just farther into the trees.

Concord gave me my first experiences with art, music, friendship, independence and becoming part of something larger than myself. It gave me room to grow while still making me feel supported. It taught me that community is built through ordinary moments repeated over time until they become the foundation of who you are.

To me, New Hampshire means roots. It means history that still breathes. It means creativity, kindness, old buildings, deep winters, rivers at sunrise, summer festivals and long walks through the woods. Most of all, it means home.

Vaibhav Rastogi is a senior a Brady Bishop High School. He lives in Concord.

“Heroines of October 7” opened on May 17.

The artwork at the newly opened Paramus exhibition is haunting: A painting depicts three figures running as bombs explode around them. Another shows an anguished face and pair of hands pushing something or someone away against a backdrop of fire and blood.

Then there are the portraits of the young women. They were soldiers, police officers and civilians who bravely stood up to terrorists on Israel’s deadliest day, when Hamas stormed the country’s borders on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 more hostage.

It is all part of “Heroines of October 7,” an art exhibition that pays tribute to women who acted with bravery to defend their communities even as they were outgunned and outnumbered.

There are paintings and statues made with embroidery, metal and wood. Among them is a piece portraying six of the kidnapped women. Another is a life-size sculpture of a female soldier holding flowers. The exhibit runs through May 29 at the Paramus headquarters of Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. The exhibit is open to the public, but reservations must be made in advance.

While other traveling exhibitions reflect on that day and memorialize the victims, this is the sole homage to women who helped save their colleagues and communities, said organizers.

This exhibit was the brainchild of curator and historian Yael Nitzan, who is also the founder of a museum in Haifa devoted to Israeli women, which will open next year. Nitzan said she wanted to create a space where the women who did extraordinary deeds that day could be honored.

“It’s very special to have them altogether in one exhibit,” she said. “I want everyone to know about them. It’s very inspiring.”

The Paramus event marks the American debut of this exhibit, which has been showcased in several Israeli cities. The installation highlights 50 women, “but we are hearing about new stories every day and we’re adding to it all the time,” Nitzan said.

Many of the visitors who came from around North Jersey to browse the installation at its May 17 opening were clearly moved.

“What strikes me is the age of these girls,” Laurie Bader of Englewood said as she examined the stories of the young women that accompanied their portraits. “A lot of them were just kids … it’s heartbreaking to learn about what they went through, sacrificing their lives in such a tragic way. They fought heroically to protect others.”

Nina Kampler of Teaneck stopped short when she reached a rocket that had been colorfully painted with the image of a young woman. “This is strikingly different than the other pieces,” she said. “It makes it all very real and makes you realize you aren’t just seeing pictures, but people who were killed. It contextualizes everything. This was a real rocket and a brutal attack designed to kill.”

The exhibit came about after Jason Shames, CEO of Jewish Federation, saw it in Nahariya, the federation’s sister city in northern Israel, and was so moved he opted to bring it to New Jersey.

“It’s a powerful tribute to the extraordinary courage of women” who “stood on the front lines of danger — protecting others, safeguarding Israel and, in many cases, making the ultimate sacrifice,” he said.

Zehava Ben Simon flew in from Israel to speak to the crowd about her daughter, Adar Ben Simon, whose image was included in the exhibit. Adar was a 20-year-old platoon leader who ordered her trainees on the base to seek shelter while she ran to the front lines to fight the invaders. She was ultimately killed by the terrorists, but she succeeded in saving the lives of 120 young people.

Her story is more than a war story, Ben Simon said. “It’s a story of her love for her people,” she said.

Eyal Eshel, the father of Sgt. Roni Eshel, who was also featured in the exhibit, spoke to the crowd as well. Roni, 19, was a surveillance observer on duty in the operations room in southern Israel when the attack began, he said.

She was among the first observers to “identify the terrorists crossing into Israel” that morning. “She warned everyone” he said. “She shouted. She tried to save lives until the very last moment. She remained at her post for hours that day, providing data to help direct forces.”

Roni was burned alive by Hamas inside the command room, along with 16 other girls, her father said.

“These young women were not political, they were not famous leaders, they were daughter, sisters, friends, young women with dreams, plans and a future that should have been waiting for them. Yet in their final moments they showed unimaginable courage,” Eyal Eshel said.

The exhibition is not only about tragedy, he said. “It’s about heroism. It’s about memory. It is about our responsibility in Israel, in America and everywhere to make sure these voices are never forgotten.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has never explicitly said he is interested in running for president.

He has not ruled it out either.

The former state attorney general on Tuesday night won the Democratic Party’s nomination for a second term, the first step toward a victory in November, when he is the clear favorite according to recent polling and projections from major forecasters. For Shapiro, a battleground-state victory, particularly by sizable margins, could prove to be a compelling opening argument for a 2028 presidential bid. 

“The bottom line is Pennsylvania is the ultimate swing state,” said Adrienne Elrod, a Democratic strategist who worked on former Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign. “The fact that he has been able to be a really strong, bipartisan, effective governor in that state says a lot about his capabilities.”

A Susquehanna Polling & Research survey in mid-March found Shapiro leading his GOP opponent, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, by a 22-point margin. He had near-total backing from Democrats, undecided voters leaned in his direction and he even won the support of 18% of Republicans. 

Berwood Yost, a longtime pollster at Franklin & Marshall College, noted that Shapiro is the most popular governor in Pennsylvania in more than two decades, though incumbents in the state routinely win re-election, sometimes by double digits.

For now, the governor says he is focused on his re-election bid, boosting Democrats in competitive House races and achieving a rare “trifecta” of Democratic control of state government. Republicans have controlled Pennsylvania’s state Senate since 1994, making a Democratic sweep of the statehouse a tall order. Even so, some political observers believe Democrats have a chance to flip the chamber this year.

If Democrats flip the Senate, it could add “a layer of credibility to his candidacy should he run” for president, Yost said. “That’s a real credential that might make people think: ‘Well, look, this is a person who can win in the kind of places where we need to win,’” he said, citing the purple, Trump-Biden-Trump states of Wisconsin and Michigan. “People also like winners.”

Shapiro would still have to overcome significant hurdles to win the Democratic presidential nomination, such as having low national name recognition and pressure from the party’s progressive wing. He remains in the single digits in most early polls of Democratic voters in a hypothetical 2028 primary field.

In 2028, “Shapiro would be a very strong general election candidate for the Democrats,” said former Rep. Charlie Dent, a Republican who endorsed Shapiro in 2022. “His challenge will be the primary.”

Although he has avoided labels, Shapiro is widely considered a centrist. Criticism lobbed against him from progressives during his brief stint on Harris’ vice-presidential shortlist could resurface if he made a national campaign — including his support for Israel and for private-school vouchers.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told MS NOW that Democratic voters are looking for “an outsider moment” in the next presidential race, pointing to the surging candidacies of figures including James Talarico in Texas and Graham Platner in Maine.

“I don’t know what the Josh Shapiro story is,” said Green. “It doesn’t seem like having five years in the governorship and then beginning from square one to tell a story to a national audience is lined up for success.”

Shapiro’s allies counter that his communications skills, approval ratings and his executive experience set him apart from a field heavy on legislators. They also say he is agile in front of reporters and in the face of tough questions.

Shapiro would also have to court prominent donors and secure endorsements in what is likely to be a crowded field. Over the years, prominent billionaire donors, including former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman — have given to his state campaigns.