126th
COMMENCEMENT
b Two classmates celebrate their sons’ graduations: from left, Joseph Dillard ’84 with son Aaron ’16, and Tennant Maxey ’16 with his father, Jack ’84.
m A proud Kevin Perez ’16 with his parents, Domingo Perez and Mirna Alvarez.
Right now, you do own it, and with a stronger hold than anyone else here today. You are the oldest. The seniors. The Class of 2016. And this is your graduation day. But when you leave this afternoon, you give up that special ownership that your age and daily presence here bestows; you give it up to those who will stay behind or who will come next September or the many Septembers after that. The statement “I’m sad to leave” cannot begin to describe the emotions you feel in your heart or that I feel after 40 years.…We will always be connected to “our school,” but it will never again be daily in our consciousness as it is now, at this moment. Okay, so that was the sad part. Now for the excitement of beginning again. But not really again.
I am starting a new life as “not a teacher.” But as what? New place, new activities, new calendar. After almost 60 years on an academic calendar, September will have a whole new meaning!…new, new, new. And you will be beginning a new school life....What will we be doing? What will our new lives be like?… Aren’t you eager, almost unbearably curious to know? Excited by possibility and opportunity? And probably wondering how long it
will take before the new and strange will again become the familiar and the owned. We are not really, fully beginning again, though, because we are different people than we were when we walked through these doors one September one or two or three or 40 years ago. I am not beginning completely over because I have learned so much between then and now: I am no longer that young woman. I know now that I had much to
“We are not really, fully beginning again, though, because we are different people than we were when we walked through these doors one September one or two or three or 40 years ago.” —LINDA SAARNIJOKI F A C U LT Y Taft Bulletin / SUMMER 2016
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