Students, it is the beginning of the end. With flashes of Seniors chasing each other across campus or bolting from Paresky Commons to the library, the arrival of Senior spooning is visible all around. This serves as a constant reminder of their impending graduation and the final days of school. This is the time of year when the entire student body exhales one last breath, after the final AP week and the submission of History 310 papers. This is a time of year when students finally take a night off to relax, nothing due, nothing to worry about. It is a chance to enjoy a few weeks with friends before leaving for summer. And there it is. Leaving. In the midst of what is the Andover student’s only chance to relax, there in the corner lies a difficult truth: leaving friends. Some students have plans to see friends over the summer or are looking forward to returning to their friends from home, but many others face a summer of internships, camps andjobs without their closest friends. Instead, these students have only a few weeks at the end of the year, a few weeks to exhale in the sun. Although many students face the difficult emotions around leaving, these emotions are particularly acute in Seniors. It is more than a little ironic that Senior spring, the holy grail at the end of four years of work, is tarnished by the necessity of leaving. This is not to say all Seniors are on the verge of depression when faced with the reality of leaving, but all of them have leaving on their minds, and any joy at graduating from Andover is likely to be matched with at least a little sadness at leaving behind four years of memories. What exactly are Seniors leaving behind? Is it four years of pure happiness? No, every student has known the feeling of waking up on a Monday and dreading the coming week, as well as weekends ruined by papers and tests for Monday. Rather, Seniors are leaving behind four years of intensity, four years where their lives were consumed by a single entity, Andover, and everything it encompasses. It is the inevitable separation from this entity that is saddening. For the rest of the students, at least another year of work, and maybe a little play, remains. Still, leaving for the summer, and facing perhaps a less intense, less consuming world, is not an easy thing to deal with. Even though students may be excited to sleep in and relax with friends, they are also undoubtedly a little sad to part with something, Andover, that has been the center of their lives for what feels like much more than a year. Take advantage of these last few weeks, a rare opportunity to just be with friends. This editorial represents the views of The Phillipian Editorial board CXXXIII. In the article “Micro Investment Initiative Inc. To Assist Haiti” that appeared in the April 16, 2010 issue, John Yang-Sammataro ’10 and Marcus Smith ’12 were misquoted. The Phillipian regrets the error.
