As Family Weekend of the 2024-2025 school year begins, thousands of family members descend upon the Andover campus. Whether it be international students who have relatives coming from across the world on a chain of connecting flights and half a day’s worth of time difference or day students whose parents are driving over from just a town over, this weekend sees the coming together of Andover’s worldwide family. To students, it is a special opportunity to welcome our parents into our lives at Andover. They will experience firsthand the walk up the dimpled steps of the Paresky Commons staircase, the inexplicably exhausting climb up the steep Morse stairs, and the infamous panicked run from Bulfinch to Graves. They will feel the hard backs of the Chapel pews during All-School Meeting, sit in the same classrooms that you have struggled, succeeded, and maybe even fallen asleep in, and learn what it feels like to walk down the Vista, the nostalgic scent of autumn filling the air. Most notably, they will finally meet the friends who have become your second family amidst their absence, who make up so much of our lives here at Andover, who have, in a sense, raised us.
The bonds we form here are unlike any other. Andover is where we navigate the vulnerability of youth, the unpredictability of our futures and who we will become. It is the liminal space between childhood and adulthood where each of us undergo our own unique metamorphoses, where the inevitability of challenge and uncertainty require us to lean on those around us. These are the friendships and connections that shape our worlds and our emerging selves. In times of hardship, we find solace and reassurance through the relatability of experience, through sharing the burden. In times of joy, we are supported by friends who are genuinely happy for us, who are there to celebrate our small victories and grander triumphs alike. At Andover, where our fellow students are such an integral part of our lives and where our families are not always available at a moment’s notice, our friends are what keep us afloat, illuminate our paths forward, and remind us to cherish the present. To have the privilege of introducing some of the most important people in our lives to each other — our friends to our parents, and our parents to our friends — is one of the invaluable gifts of Family Weekend.
But beyond allowing for this merging of worlds, Family Weekend also provides the space for moments of recovery and rejuvenation. Over the long weekend, seek opportunities to revitalize relationships with your loved ones. The wear and tear of Andover life often finds us retreating into our rooms immediately after meals or shirking out of phone calls to run to our next commitment. We are separated emotionally and physically from our families for much of our time at Andover, and finding dedicated time to spend with our family members is difficult. Family Weekend affords the chance to seek your parents out for a meal, have a late-night chat with your sibling, perhaps even take the leap to send a message to old friends who we haven’t spoken to — it is about revitalizing connections both with our family and beyond. And as much as Family Weekend is for our families, it can also be a time for ourselves. For some of us, we have just made it past our very first few months at Andover. Fall term, as well as the recently passed midterms week, is both academically and emotionally challenging. These couple days off are for you to take a breath, so don’t be afraid to take some time alone. Whether recharging means catching up on sleep or enjoying a favorite meal, use this time to prioritize your well-being and set yourself up for success in the rest of the term and year.
The arrival of families on campus often brings forth lighthearted jokes about how campus suddenly shapes up, the food in Paresky elevates up a notch, and the red carpets are rolled out. As it should! Bringing our loved ones to our home away from home should feel special and exciting. Seeing so many new faces enlivens campus too, the freshness of their energy dispelling exhaustion and burnout from midterms and holding off the looming shadow of finals week just a while longer. Family Weekend is intended as celebration, as reunion, as respite. So breathe. Take hold of its magic in your palms, watch the falling leaves adorn campus in shades of crimson and honeyed amber, and let us rejoice.
