Last Friday’s All-School Meeting (ASM) was devoted to senior remarks offered by Migyu Kim ’25, Sebastian Lemberger ’25, and Giuliana Cardinale ’25. The trio recounted their memories and imparted lessons they learned over the course of their time at Andover. The assembly would also be the last time Nate Liang ’25 and Saraya Angbazo ’25, Andover’s 2024-2025 Student Body Co-Presidents, would take to the stage of Cochran Chapel to address the student body.
Migyu Kim ’25 kicked off the remarks by destigmatizing the construct of quitting, giving three of her own reflections of a “quitter.” Kim used the example of her experience switching between two sports, squash and crew, to emphasize her three reflections.
“There’s such a negative perception toward quitting that I’m quite scared to admit in front of you all that I’m a quitter myself … I did give up a bit [on squash]. To the other players, coaches, and parents outside of school, I was quitting the sport I had devoted my life to. But to me, I began taking advantage of the amazing opportunities at Andover, using my time to focus more on my schoolwork, join new clubs, attend cool events and conferences, and build new relationships,” said Kim.
Reflecting on her speech afterward, Kim noted the difficulty in capturing the depth of her struggles, and how transformative the challenges students undergo can be.
“I almost wish that I was able to convey how challenging certain moments where I’d quit and had a really hard time were. That feeling of uncertainty and feeling of hopelessness at times, but also, the feeling of pride that comes with overcoming difficult challenges too. Those are feelings that everyone has experienced that’s hard to put into words,” said Kim.
Sebastian Lemberger ’25 addressed the audience next, bidding a farewell to his Andover experience by redefining citizenship as the responsibility to support the pursuits of others rather than solely one’s own.
“Reception is also something that you can give to others, and the ability to receive the work of others is something that even a washed up Senior such as myself can do. A world of things was happening across campus, and I was completely unaware of it. For every email I sent, for every assignment that I completed, there was a performance or a talk that had one less filled seat and a hard worker whose work would be received by one less person. I believed that by doing things for myself, I was actually serving other people. Sometimes it is a more noble act to take the evening off and enjoy the work of another person than it is to revel in the necessity of your own pursuits,” said Lemberger.
During his speech, Lemberger announced that every hymnal in the chapel had been bookmarked on Page 285. Sean Choi ’27 noted his amazement of Lemberger’s feat and his appreciation for the message he conveyed.
“His speech was very engaging. I’d like to pinpoint one of his pranks with the hymnals, which I thought was very funny and interesting and creative. I wonder where he got the idea from and everybody was very shocked. I remember hearing the sound of everyone opening up their books at the same time,” said Choi.
The last speech of the day was given by Giuliana Cardinale ’25, who drew a parallel between her life and the movie, “My Old A**,” urging students to remain present in their lives before the future creeps up upon them. Cardinale also commented on her gratitude for the opportunities and feelings Andover afforded her, and how those opportunities and feelings often went unnoticed.
“For four years, I’ve heard people say how excited they are to leave. Look at the world while you’re still living in it. Love it before it becomes something you only talk about, and the teenager you’re telling your story to groans. When you’re constantly chasing that future version of yourself, it makes it hard to notice, to sit still, look around and realize that these moments of awkwardness and unfiltered joy and boredom and mess with these people. What would your old a** say to you?” said Cardinale.
Cardinale continued, “I don’t think I always recognized what a privilege it is and has been to be here, to feel so deeply about a place. Even when those deep feelings sometimes manifested as frustration, even those of us who pushed back the hardest, who rolled our eyes and stopped and made fun of Andover’s oddities, what a privilege it is to have something to push back on. Something big enough, flawed enough, absurdly wonderfully enough, crazy enough, alive enough to resist, to argue with, to be angry at, to hate so much you love it, to love so much you hate it, to always return to.”
