Hemenway Speech

Every member of the senior class at our school had to give a speech today - their Hemenway speech - to the senior class, some faculty members who judged, and anyone else from the school who had a free period and wanted to come listen. It was really incredible to hear from everyone - you could basically write about anything you wanted to write about. What I loved the most was that people really opened up, just like we all had at TMS. People shared intimate, personal thoughts and feelings - taking risks and being vulnerable.

My speech was inspired by TMS and my final reflection. I thought I'd share it all with you. It actually takes part of my final reflection because that's really the message that I wanted to deliver to my class, because I hadn't gotten to tell everyone about this one thing I took back from TMS. I thought it also really applied to our situation now - at the end of our senior year.

Raindrops and Dandelions: Life At It’s Fullest

Last spring I spent a semester at The Mountain School. I can remember one day very vividly. A light sprinkle fell from the sky as my roommate and I crossed Siberia, an expansive, open field filled with hills. We were heading back from our science sites, Our heads turned down, and our bodies pulled into ourselves, we tried to protect ourselves from the cold wet droplets that were bringing our spirits down. We were cold, wet and tired. Yet then, all of a sudden, Sarah and I decided that we just wanted it to pour. If we were going to get wet, it better not be from a light sprinkle. We wanted to feel the rain pound hard on our bodies, to shower down and soak us to the skin, just like in The Notebook. We looked up to the sky, opened up our arms to the clouds above us, and screamed at the top our of lungs, “POUR!” I gazed up as if I were looking into the soul of the sky, and slowly turned around as I heard my voice echo “RAIN! POUR!” in the distance.

Shedding our raincoats, we wandered through the grass and plopped down in the middle of the rolling hills to string dandelion crowns. By the end, I was shivering from the cold and the excitement. I not only felt such appreciation for the world around me, but also felt so alive. It was in that one spontaneous moment that despite the rain and cold, I was happy.

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Too often we lose site of the moment. In our society, so many people get caught up in busy lives filled with schedules, appointments, activities, and plans. Often my concentration is the future – I need to study hard to get into a good college so I can get a good job so I can live a happy and successful life. Many other people have similar mindsets, concentrating on fulfilling their aspirations and planning their lives based on future goals. Although it is not bad to keep goals in mind, I believe that we should not be afraid to live in the now. We need to take time to do something not for the future but instead because that is exactly what we want to do in this very second. This is one lesson I took away from my time spent at The Mountain School. I learned to live as if there were always a finite time limit. I learned to be spontaneous and ready to spin any occasion into a positive, fulfilling, memorable event.

Too frequently in our lives, time moves so slowly. I previously felt that I would be at Winsor forever. However, I do not have much time left. Yet, although endings are sad, they allow you to better appreciate the time you do have to spend with the people around you, wherever you are. With the pressure of time and the realization that we do not have forever together, it is harder to get lost in daily routines. For seniors at Winsor, we are able to concentrate more on all the good things we love about our school – the people we care about, the support of the teachers, the community we are a part of. So why can’t we live like this all the time? The answer is – we can. Even without the pressure of time, we can still appreciate every moment of our lives and remind ourselves to take some time to simply live.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. It does not matter if each decision fits on the line that leads straight to your goal, for if that is where you truly belongs, you will get there eventually. Even if a decision or action does not make sense, in the end, every person will get to where they need to be. Until then, you should not be afraid to take time to live as if there were an approaching end. You should try to always feel the need to make the most of every situation, no matter where you are in life. Appreciate the people in your life and remind them how much they mean to you – even if you are not about to part from them. Put a positive spin on any situation. Live in the moment and make spontaneous whole-hearted decisions. Scream at the sky. Run through the pouring rain. String dandelion crowns. Live your life – do not let it pass you by.