180th Commencement
It is easy to love a place when you are happy and you are successful. It is easy to appreciate Suffield when the sun is shining, and classes are fine, and friends are happy, and the smile on your face seems to mirror the sunset on Bell Hill. When everything is going well, it’s easy to love Suffield. It’s not so easy after a heartbreaking loss, like Seth’s, but the support that Suffield provides makes us love this place in spite of ourselves. Our class has had its fair share of trials and tribulations—days when nothing is going well. To put it mildly, I really hope that high school does not end up being the best time of our lives. Yet here we sit at Suffield Academy with nostalgia and love for this place. This place is the scene of some of the hardest moments of our young lives, but it is also so difficult to leave behind. We have grown here. Seth is but one example. I have had the pleasure of watching all of my classmates grow into who they are meant to be. I have watched Wynn Mason and Cheryl Kuo create some of the most incredible visual art I have ever seen. I have watched Colin Pascoe be named to the All-New England basketball team over and over again. I have watched Gina Nasiadka and Victoria Page defy gender norms and shoot a rifle in ways that seem physically impossible. I have watched Filippa Brandolini pick up cross- country in her junior year and become one of the most talented runners in New England. I have watched Mikhail Kozak deliver an amazing performance for the theatre arts department in his second language. I have watched Mariam Ibrahim, and that’s all I really needed to do. I have watched myself grow into the confident young woman who stands in front of you now. I could literally give an anecdote about every one of my classmates. However, I hope that Wynn relishes the memory of the most frustrating piece she ever worked on. I hope that Colin does not look back on Suffield and only remember his key free throws. I
hope that Mariam takes the most pride in the class she struggled with. I hope these things because when I look back on Suffield, yes I will remember the good, boastful things, but my most important memories are different. When Mrs. Vianney asked me to put a little bit more into my 22-page research paper because she believed in my interest in feminism. When I had to stop swimming due to serious health issues two weeks before New Englands my sophomore year, and Mr. Zwirko said, “Anna stop moping and support your team.” When I missed an entrance to the first scene of my first ever play, and Jay O’Brien, a seasoned actor, gave me a hug and the courage to finish an amazing show. When I sat sobbing in Lucy Zimmerman’s room in Nathena Fuller house and realized my pain had actually made us closer. The real world will not be as loving as Suffield when we are at our worst. Mr. Cahn said it to me himself: “Anna, there will not ever be another time in your life when this many adults care about your well-being.” That one was hard to swallow. However, Suffield has taught us that when we are low, when we are disheartened, our community will not give up on us. Now it is time for us to build new communities, keeping those values in mind. The world is a wide, beautiful place, and we have the power to transfer the values of Suffield to it. Whether you are like me, and going an hour away, or going to North Carolina, California, Canada, Michigan, or Wisconsin, the world will appreciate our triumphs and our failures in the same way that Suffield has accepted us. So, let us go, the young men and women we have become, and seize this day. Let us seize all days. Let us fail, and let us seek the encouragement to get back up again, always remembering that that is what Suffield has taught us to do. View Anna’s speech at www.suffieldacademy.org/commencement
Spring 2013 | 25