|  Welcome
to the convocation for the graduating class of 2007.
Our mission: “To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new
life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no class has gone
before.”
Although we may not be the first to make this claim, the graduating
class of 2007 is most certainly about to embark on an exploration
of its own. Last fall, when the school year began, we were told
that senior year was ephemeral and that before we knew it, we would
be walking across the stage in our beautiful white dresses (thoroughly
approved by our southern senior class advisor) to accept our well-earned
diplomas. Back then, many of us could not have imagined that this
day would ever arrive. Yet, here we are, sharing in the discomfort
of Field House folding chairs and its antiquated speaker system.
Some of you sitting in these very chairs may have experienced numerous
graduation ceremonies, but for those of us on this side of the room,
this day embodies the culmination of our exploration through high
school and the beginning of a new adventure.
What we have learned in our dozen years of schooling is that we
didn’t make it to this point in our travels on our own. Without
the skillful and intrepid guides present in the academic and spiritual
communities to navigate us through the labyrinth of our high school
years, our enterprise would not be possible.
Each of the senior girls graduating today embarked on her high school
travels from different backgrounds and with different experiences
and aspirations. But during our time here together our paths have
intertwined. And this crossing of paths will extend far beyond simply
the halls of the Academy.
Naturally we shared our gym uniforms when someone forgot theirs.
We always shared liturgies in chapel. And of course we shared the
crowded mirror between the girls’ bathroom and the forbidden
women’s bathroom on the third floor of Benade Hall. We also
shared our contempt for Bean Hall riblets and cold winter legs.
Our sharing took on a more intrinsic depth as we shared genuine
sorrow and compassion when, early this year, one of our classmates
lost her brother. And perhaps, down the long road we will share
a bridge table at Cairnwood Village as we recount all of these memories,
both happy and sad.
Our education here at the Academy also proved to be an expedition
of a different kind. Mrs. Esther’s class, for example, never
failed to be an entertaining ride. She urged all of us to explore
every aspect of our lives. Well, everything but walking down the
Cathedral aisle (at least not for the next 40 years)! Other classes
took similar entertaining turns. Mrs. Friesen favored the element
of surprise. Whether she was flinging pig eyeballs at the lab floor
or squirting an unsuspecting Stef Quintero or Briene Lermitte with
water, Mrs. Friesen always managed to make the discovery of the
human body exciting. And then there was Mr. Boyce who insisted on
telling a cheesy joke before every test and even forced us to sing
his mathematical rendition of “I will survive, as long as
I know the unit circle, I know I’ll stay alive.” And
who of us hasn’t been locked outside the Field House with
Coach DeBaise sitting right inside saying, “Go around, go
around.” And we do go around, but of course we don’t
have our ID.
Like all explorers, we suffered the elements. This year’s
Junior-Senior Dance, for example, boasted the worst date-to-single
ratio in ANC history. We all know one teacher who took it upon herself
to verbally assault nearly every Boys School student into either
asking one of us to go or hiding from her wrath.
And there was the loss of back campus. What began as the sudden
destruction of several prominent and beloved trees, soon turned
into a full-fledged construction site. With expansion plans already
underway and Bean Hall’s imminent move to the Fine Arts building,
the Academy itself is also about to embark on a new venture in culinary
construction.
The gargantuan holes you now see on back campus are symbolic of
the gaping holes that will be created next year by the loss of both
young and venerated faculty members: Coach Andy Davis, Mrs. Henderson,
Mr. "Kurtie-Lamb" Asplundh... and that’s just for
starters! Who will be able to offer humorous but insightful life
lessons in the inimitable style of Mr. Friesen? What will the Girls
School do without Mrs. Gladish laying down the law? And who will
water Miss Morna’s plants? And to you, Mr. Keir, as you head
off on your own adventure, we bid you farewell with one final "wax-on,
wax-off." At least our class has the distinction and great
fortune of being the last to have had these extraordinary teachers.
Whether we venture onward to Lousiana, Germany, New York, Australia,
Indiana, across the state or just across Tomlinson Road, we really
will begin to explore the vast campuses of our new worlds. We do
intend to seek out new life and new civilizations as we learn to
live with a new roommate and join new clubs. And we plan to boldly
go where no class has gone before…Bryn Athyn College! But
no matter how far our journeying takes us or how many years transpire
before we reunite, there is, after all, a staying in our going and
a going in our staying.
We may leave behind this Academy, this faculty, this community,
this Church, these friends, but we take with us the countless gifts
that each has bestowed and the myriad memories that we have gained.
We can’t really know what we have had here until we put it
to use in unfamiliar places. Only then will we experience the impact
it has made on us. Only then will we be able to truly understand
the words of T.S. Eliot, “We shall not cease from exploration.
And at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.”
The intertwined paths of the class of 2007 will surely meet up again
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