As the hectic last days of classes fly by and the Class of 2011’s Commencement approaches, students slip into a state of reflection.
While it is easy to get lost in the commotion of finals, papers, green move-outs and enjoying time with friends during Spring Term’s final days, members of the class of 2011 will be circling on the Great Lawn in a matter of days.
Commencement means the end of a journey for the graduating class, but it also serves a means of a beginning, not just for the members of 2011, but every class.
Uppers, slowly but surely recovering from the sleepless nights of their Spring Term, will look to leave their days as the campus workhorses behind and ascend to their niche as leaders and role models—the Senior class.
Lowers will return from the days of completing their homework on the Great Lawn and look ahead to the daunting school year that lies ahead of them. The combination of high-quality work with depleted workloads put the Lower class in a position to be successful upperclassmen.
Juniors, with a newfound sense of independence, will expend their campus vision and dive into a world full of possibilities beyond the classroom and the GW mailroom couches.
Finally, the Senior class will look ahead to the various colleges, universities and gap-years they have worked so tirelessly to arrive at. In parallel with Commencement, whatever lie ahead for each member of the graduating class not just a means of an end, but also a means of a beginning, in both academia and in the greater scheme of life.
With Andover’s definite class ascension, it may seem as though members of the each grade simply replace those that previously held their position in the school’s structure, or perhaps replaced by those one year their junior.
Though the Class of 2012 will be Seniors in the fall, their predecessors will sorely missed and never forgotten.
This Editorial represents the views of The Phillipian Editorial Board CXXXIV.
