I gave this speech a couple of weeks ago at an all-school meeting before I graduated from high school. I attended Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass.
My freshman year, I remember sitting on the rickety benches in the lobby of Allen, awestruck by some of the students who got up to speak at morning meeting. That year, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t let myself graduate without giving a personal speech at all-school meeting. So, here I am. It took me a long time to get here, but I got here nonetheless.I’m so grateful to have gotten the chance to discover who I am and share it with all of you. This place just fills me with so much joy that it overflows from me and I have no option other than to share it.
By finding Berkshire, I found home. This place has done the impossible: it has given me the idyllic high school experience. And, as I’m sure all of you know, high school and adolescence is anything but idyllic. Being a teenager is associated with indecision, drama, and heartache, although rightfully so. And predictably, I experienced all of the above, but Berkshire has had a way of making even the worst of times seem ethereal.
This magic hinges on the safety net Berkshire has helped me weave throughout the years. No matter what, I knew that I had somewhere to turn: whether it was my dorm parents, some of the best friends I will ever have in life, or the most pragmatic and patient advisor anyone could ask for, I knew that my safety and success was secure. Over the course of four years, I learned that the best way to be independent is to depend on the help that others are offering. And yes, that sounds paradoxical and cliché, but I believe it. And knowing that I have this unyielding support system no matter what allows me entrust my most vulnerable moments with the strongest people I know who understand me the most. Which means that I don’t have to carry my own burdens, to continue the cliché. Do you realize how amazing that feels, to walk around feeling safe? Like, completely and totally okay, in the midst of a time in my life where everything feels like the antithesis of “okay”. There’s this place where I can take all of that agony, as I need to in order to even be a teenaged person, analyze it, then crumble it up like a piece of paper and recycle it for the next round of students that come here to pick it up and experience their own version of it, and then learn from it.
Boarding school is a huge recycling bin of emotions and Vineyard Vines clothing. You take what you want, do with it what you will, then decide whether or not you want to include it in your college packing. That last part is the most important lesson I’ve learned form high school. No matter what happens, you can always choose it. You can choose how it affects you, you can choose its effects on you, and you can choose what you learn from it. I did not expect to come to Berkshire and learn all of this about life and about myself. I didn’t expect to become a prefect, and I didn’t expect to care as much as I do about everything I do: from theater, to schoolwork, to friends, to family, I never intended on loving Berkshire as much as I do. I didn’t anticipate Berkshire to have as much meaning for me as it does. But, since I’ve been here, I’m going to choose to embrace it completely, for the little time I have left. I say that with a heavy heart, because every day I find new words to describe the incredible experiences I have had at Berkshire in such a short time. Although I feel like a completely different person than when I entered high school, four years isn’t actually that long. It’s actually pretty short in comparison to the rest of one’s lifetime. Which is why I’m especially happy and proud to be able to say that I got to spend these past four years under the mountain. Although it is such a short time, I have loved every minute of it. I could talk forever about Berkshire, which is strange considering it was the last school I applied to. But, there was something about driving up the long, beautiful tree-lined driveway that first time that gave me hope. I sensed the potential waiting for me here. I could taste the greatness. So I took the chance, and my family risked sending me away to school. And I wouldn’t have changed a moment.
So, I’m not up here today to say goodbye. I’m up here because I feel like Berkshire has given me so much that it only makes sense to give a little back. I hope you all aren’t sick of hearing me talk by now. You all are great people; you just have to believe it. I want to thank all of you for being great, even though the word great isn’t nearly sufficient enough to describe the amount of amazing that is in this room right now. It’s paralyzing to think that I have to leave in less than two weeks.
I entered high school with the basic cable package of emotions. I am moving on from Berkshire
School with a “DirecTV”-sized bundle.
