Theodore Taylor-D'Ambrosio's Grad at Grad Reflection

The following speech was delivered by Theodore Taylor‐D’Ambrosio (’13) to the Loyola community at morning assembly on May 2, 2013.

A Loyola Student is Becoming More Open to Growth

For those of you who did not know my during middle school years, I was the shy kid in the back of the classroom, too afraid to make a joke for fear of no one laughing. Those of you who know me now know that the only laughter I care about is my own, so I don’t really care if you laugh at any of the rest of my jokes, I think they are funny.

I came into Loyola the “little brother” of a big personality. Sam. Sam was two

years ahead of me. Kairos leader, student government, all around good guy. Sam was kind of an all‐star here during his time, leaving me under an all‐star shadow and having to live up to the precedent he set. This contributed to my quietness and shyness during my freshman year at Loyola. I had gotten used to teachers asking me “oh you’re Sam’s little brother right?” and his friends gawking at me like I was some science experiment. Being “Sam’s little brother” made me all the more determined to break out of not only my social restraints but also the restraint of just being “Sam’s little brother”. I found this easiest to accomplish through sports and academics. But what I did not realize was that my journey of personal growth would lead me not only to a position as a Kairos leader but also to a position like right now where I am comfortable giving a speech in front of all my classmates.

If you had asked me during freshman year what “open to growth” meant, I

probably would have said something about going on service trips and not counting

anything out before you try it. I would not have thought that a student who is open to growth would be someone that knows and accepts him or herself for who they are, both good and bad. For most people, accepting their strengths is easy, whether it be a certain subject, sport, or other extra‐curricular. But, admitting a weakness or difficulty we have is completely different. For example, when I was a sophomore I was put into Ms. Kusk’s AP Euro class, the first higher‐level course of my Loyola career. Being in a class with such smart people combined with the fact that I was never amazing at history resulted in a couple bad test scores at the beginning of the year. But, being too proud to admit I was having trouble in the class, I convinced my peers and myself that the first two tests were flukes and I was not having any difficulty. After my third straight 70 on a test, I decided I would finally go to office hours. Accepting my weakness in history was not as easy as I would have thought, but after an hour of going over tests with Ms. Kusk and reviewing material for the next test, I saw my scores rise. Now I know that going to office hours isn’t exactly being open to new challenges but it was my first experience of struggle and admitting my weaknesses. I never really struggled with academics in middle school, so to admit a weakness was a new experience for me that enlightened me to the fact that struggling with something is ok and not everyone is good at everything.

I can attribute a major part of my growth at Loyola to the sports teams I have

been a part of throughout my four years. My mom told me to go out for the cross‐ country team before my first day of high school because I think we both realized that my best chance at making a friend was going to be through sports. Having never run before, you can imagine my fear of being yelled at to “speed up” by what I had

envisioned as a scary ogre‐like coach on my first day. Then I met Mr. Donacik, the angelic, eloquent authority figure that was my first coach at Loyola. He not only made me an exponentially better runner but also gave me my first opportunity to meet new people and make friends that I still hold to this day. Equally as important to my Loyola experience was my time with Mr. Joseph on the JV basketball team.

During my sophomore year, Mr. Joseph made me realize the difficulty and responsibility that comes with being a leader of a team. I had never been a leader in any form at my old school and while Mr. Joseph could have given up on me in the beginning of the season, he stuck with me, giving only mild and kind words of pure encouragement the whole way, and by the end of the season we had become a pretty successful team.

My growth from a shy, timid freshman to a more confident, outgoing junior

was put to the test when Ms. Baber slyly asked me to join the Kairos team. Accepting the challenge to be a kairos leader meant being a part of a team with seven other people I didn’t know of yet, going on a retreat surrounded by a hundred strangers, then leading that same retreat later that year for my own classmates with nothing but experience and a binder of instructions to help me. Yet, even as these very thoughts ran through my mind, I said yes. I said yes simply because I thought it was an opportunity I could not pass up. As I look back, I can say with confidence that the 8th grade Ned Taylor would have laughed and politely declined. But over my years at Loyola I had realized that you don’t mess with Kairos. That was an experience even Sam would not tell me anything about. That mystery was enough for me to say yes.

My newfound ability to lead was really put to the test when I was asked to be the

Beadle, which was a mystery even to the other Kairos leaders. I cannot really tell you anything else about Kairos or I am going to burst into flames right here, but I can say that it not only strengthened the idea of seeing God in all things as seen with the experiences with my classmates and it may have served as the single most important testament to my growth as a Loyolan to this day. It was a journey with seven remarkable people that not only tested my leadership abilities and nurtured my faith, but also gave me some memories that will last a lifetime.

Looking to the future, we all have opportunities to be open to growth in the

coming years. The seniors have a huge change ahead of us in college, juniors have to become the role models for all younger people, sophomores are making the change from underclassmen to upperclassmen, and freshmen have almost completed their first year at Loyola. A teacher at my old school said, does God give us courage or does he give us chances to be courageous? I think the same goes for growth. No one forced me to grow, many people have helped me along the way but the growth and lessons I learned came from me. Thank you.