EDITORIAL
REFLECTIONS ON OUR FIRST GRADUATING CLASS AND WHAT IT MEANS TO “FINISH”
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sit in box 54 of Carnegie Hall’s balcony, cramped in between a college-aged man and my friend Lucas. I am at “The Unfinished” concert listening to Mozart and Schoenberg’s great ‘unfinished’ works. Although I am not a classical music expert, when the violinists surrender their bows and the drummer’s mallet returns to his lap, the piece seems finished. I turn to Lucas and ask, “How is that considered unfinished?” What does it mean to finish? According to the Oxford English dictionary, the verb to finish means to “bring (a task or activity) to an end; complete.” But how is completion measured? And how should it be measured for our graduating seniors? Avenues, which is nearly five years old, is still new. We watch it evolve each day: the new schedules, the course requirements, even the building itself. And now, the upper school is about to graduate its very first senior class, a group of fifty-five pioneering students who took a big leap of faith in enrolling at a brand new school to begin their high school careers. For a school that many still consider a “work-in-progress,” it seems odd for a group of its students to finally “finish the job.” For what drew many of these students to the school in the first place was its “unfinished” character. Avenues senior, Julian Franco said, “Entering Avenues I was really nervous. I didn’t know anyone. It was my first time spending a lot of time in Manhattan. It was my first time taking Spanish. It was my first time in a secular school.” For Franco, Avenues represented an opportunity to push herself in a new way, perhaps more than a traditional high school ever could. After all, Avenues does not possess the longstanding and limiting traditions of more established institutions. But comparisons have not always proven productive. “Avenues has taught me not to compare myself to others. This has allowed me to learn more about myself and my community. Success means different things for different people,” said senior, Miriam Khazanov. At the same time, due to its “unfinished” character, Avenues students have had many experiences that students at other schools could not even fathom.
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“So many of the most memorable times in my high school career—studying abroad in Beijing, co-founding the D4i Conference, creating my mastery project, captaining the Varsity Basketball team, amongst others—that were crucial to my development as a student and person involved activities and skill-sets that I had no experience in before I got here,” said senior Sophie Potter. Potter laid the groundwork in many of her extracurricular pursuits. She was not just the captain of the Varsity Basketball team. She was the captain of Avenues’ first Varsity Basketball team. And that is unique in and of itself. All schools evolve. All schools change. Very few schools, however, change as often and as drastically as Avenues, a school committed to innvotation and growth. The first graduating class is likely leaving behind a school that will come to resemble something different in the years to come – but not without leaving a lasting legacy and a nod to the beauty in the “finished” and the “unfinished.” “I think there are certain moments in life when you realize an experience, relationship, or job is finished. Graduating will be one of those moments,” said Franco. “For the past four years, I’ve worked really hard not just to get into college, but to make a difference.” As Avenues evolves, its first graduating class has finished one of the most important pieces of its history: high school students successfully starting and finishing their time at the school. What remains unfinished is who these same students will become and how their time spent at Avenues informs those decisions. Lao Tzu, a famous Chinese philosopher said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” On the first first day in September 2012, the Class of 2016 took that step, and on graduation day, the entire school will continue the journey with them. At “The Unfinished” concert, when the music stopped, the show seemed complete to me. On graduation day at Avenues, it might be easy to think the show is over for our graduating class. But Avenues seniors will know better. The music never stops. • - Isabella Simonetti