Opening Day of School
During assembly on Tuesday, September 2nd, Dr. Shahan welcomed everyone to the school's 86th year, extending a special welcome to our 95 seventh graders, nine new eighth graders, eight new freshmen, one new sophomore and two new juniors, including Thomas van Kann, our AFS student from Germany. Dr. Shahan discussed the meaning of community, acknowledged the seniors who are now our student leaders, and thanked the faculty.
Christy Phelps '09 sang the Star Spangled Banner. She was followed at the podium by Senior Class President Alex Bearman and Student Body President Amol Pai who addressed assembly with similar themes of living in the moment.
Alex Bearman –
Good morning Dr. Shahan, faculty and staff, students, and the Class of 2009.
I want to welcome everyone to the first day of the year, especially the seniors and Dr. Shahan. Today, the Class of 2009 and Dr. Shahan share their last first day at John Burroughs School. Dr. Shahan, the Class of 2009 feels a special connection to you as we are your final senior class at Burroughs. I speak for all of us when I say, "I hope you feel the same way."
I ask everyone in the audience to consider the effort it took for us to arrive at this place of honor, and to understand the pride we feel to be here. Each of us has taken a slightly different path to this stage, but we are unified today as we begin our senior year. I won’t try to convince you that we are the greatest senior class ever. That is an impossible argument. We are like all other Burroughs classes before us in that we are a group of remarkable students, athletes and artists. What does make us unique, right now, is that this year is our year in the sun. Now it’s up to us to make the most of it.
Ten days ago the seniors traveled to Drey Land for a weekend of fun and reminiscing. One evening we gathered around a fire built on the bank of Sinking Creek. As I looked around at my classmates it occurred to me, more than ever before, that we are truly nearing the end of our time together.
There is a John Mayer song that makes me think about our year to come. It is titled "Clarity," and in it he sings, “By the time I recognize this moment/this moment will be gone/But I will bend the light, pretend that it somehow lingered on.” John Mayer is of course describing that feeling we all too often have, the realization that we didn’t appreciate something until it was gone. He then finds a way to “bend the light,” to trick himself into believing that he didn’t make that mistake. With all due respect to John Mayer, I think there is a better way.
Our “moment” is our senior year, and I propose that there are things we can do to recognize and treasure it while it’s happening. We should take every opportunity we can to stop and say “Isn’t Burroughs great?”, or “Aren’t we lucky to be here?” We should also reach beyond the boundaries of our best friendships and make new ones. The relationships we build here are what will be our strongest tie to Burroughs. Rather than looking back on our senior year and saying to ourselves, “Wow, that really flew by,” we will accept our diplomas with a feeling of satisfaction and a sense of closure.
I have heard my predecessors speak of the seniors’ responsibility to lead by example. I believe that if we do everything we can to appreciate what we have while we have it, to “recognize the moment” before it is gone, it would be the best example we could set. This can be our lasting legacy.
Seniors, the next time we sit on this stage as a group it will be on the last day of school. We will have completed our classes, our last set of finals, our May Projects, and, we will know where we’re going to college. Hopefully we will sit without regret, for we will have made the most of our “moment.”
Thank you.
Amol Pai –
Good morning everybody,
And what a morning it is. The first first day of school for the Class of 2014 (7th graders that’s you guys), and the last first day of school for my beloved class of 2009 and our great headmaster, Dr. Shahan.
But before I start to openly weep on stage and awkwardly try to give Dr. Shahan a hug only to be denied and be given a more appropriate handshake, I have a few things I'd like to say.
First, welcome. Or, welcome back. I'm sure you all are ecstatic to be here. I know I am. After the last final exam last year, I had to be physically escorted off campus because I was so excited for this year. Then I memorized every page of last year's yearbook. Finally, after reading every summer reading book twice, I tried unsuccessfully to camp out in Haerrter Hall for the past month. But enough about my summer, right?
Really, I know there's a part of everybody here that could not wait to get back to this special place. Within this school is a diverse compilation of scholars, athletes, scholar-athletes, artists, writers and everything else you can possibly imagine. Really get to know your peers because, chances are, they're cool and interesting. I have yet to find such supportive and stunningly good looking group of individuals. This is one aspect of Burroughs that I really want to play up this year, so stay supportive ...and good looking.
Congress has met a couple times this summer, and let me be the first one to tell you, we have some really cool events on the schedule for this year. A lot of dancing, music, and other festivities are on the way. Nonetheless, nothing is set in stone just yet, so if you have some crazy school wide event in mind, definitely let your class officers know, and we can make it happen. Remember: this is our school. We can make it what we want it to be.
One thing that's gonna be different this year from previous years is that Blue and Gold week is next week. Which means that, really soon, we have to combine all our energy into massive ball to destroy MICDS. Next week should be like the epic battle in Dragon Ball Z between Goku (us) and Majin Buu (MICDS). How did Goku win? Some of you look clueless. Nice acting. He used the Spirit Bomb, a massive sphere of energy from all the living beings on earth. Basically, that's what we have to do this year. At every sporting event, especially next week, I want to see a sea a blue and gold yelling as loudly as possible, definitely intimidating the opposing team. I definitely want to see more 7th and 8th graders than ever out there so as to add to the intimidation factor even more.
Well, anyway, usually there's a theme for the year which everyone forgets by second period anyway, and I'm no rebel, so I decided to think of one. Jordan Stone didn't exactly give us much growing room with his “Best Year Ever,” so I didn't really know where to start. Initially, I had a few ideas, but they all failed:
“Better Year Ever?” Well that's not as good as the Best Year Ever, so it doesn't really work.
“Opposite Year?” Kind of like opposite day except for the whole year. That would be really cool. Too confusing.
“Year of Love?” Too cheesy and, for me, depressing.
Then I tried to make a witty acronym from Dr. Shahan's name but that “N” at the end messed me up totally.
So I didn't have anything. But as soon as I walked on our plush, green campus this morning and smelled that fresh dew off of our crisp grass, it dawned on me: this is the Year of Now.
See, a lot of times here we just try to stick it out until the next deadline: working until that weekend, working until Thanksgiving break, just working until the next thing. But while we're doing this we often forget about what Burroughs is all about: the journey, not the destination. We forget about the little things in life that make school fun. Let's not do that this year. Everything we do, let's do it 100% and let's cherish our time here. Let's make it the Year of Now.
John Burroughs, the man himself, once said, “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.” I think these words describe what this year is all about perfectly. One of the reasons that John Burroughs was such a beast is that he always tried to live life to the fullest, without regrets. Alex just talked about the “moment” that we should all make the most of, and she's totally right. If we all appreciate that our time here is limited, our school will be on its way to the kind of glory only Michael Phelps has felt. I'm sure it feels good.
So, here we are. Here we are at the start of our journey as a community. Let's live it up. Remember: as John Mayer said, “Why Georgia why?” Wait. That made no sense. But hey, don't worry about it. As Alex just showed us, John Mayer is wrong most of the time. With that, get ready for an awesome year, and have a nice first day of school.
Thank you.
