From top left to bottom right, Carlos Cepeda-Diaz, Semira Robinson, Audrey Hsieh, and Mia Xiao.
The final All-School Meeting (ASM) of the year was dedicated to remarks from four members of the Class of 2023 — Carlos Cepeda-Diaz ’23, Audrey Hsieh ’23, Semira Robinson ’23, and Mia Xiao ’23. In the second Senior Remarks ASM of the term, the four students had the opportunity to share reflections and takeaways from their time at Andover.
To open the ASM, Cepeda-Diaz explored the idea of traditions, recounting his own morning runs with a group of friends. Cepeda-Diaz urged students to create time-bound commitments with friends and put effort into prioritizing the connections they make with each other. For him, the friendships and traditions he formed during his Andover journey made his experience truly special.
“I do not think the magic of Andover can be condensed into just the Fall Andover/Exeter football game, or watching the Blue Key Head tryouts in Lower Right. Instead, the magical Andover experience comes from our own little traditions and the connections we continuously deepen through them. Unlike official traditions, little traditions are created on our own terms with the people dearest to us, they’re never about the thing itself, but who you get to do them with,” said Cepeda-Diaz.
Xiao began her remarks by reflecting on her own experience applying to boarding schools, and followed by delving into how intrinsic and extrinsic motivations impact the way students live their lives. Whether it be on the Andover Girls JV Hockey team, in the newsroom, or exploring Senior electives, Xiao described her own journey in coming to find intrinsic motivation.
“When we devote ourselves to pursuing these extrinsic motivations, it is easy for us to develop and tunnel vision, and believe that there is one narrow set of criteria that, once we fulfill, will guarantee our success… Ironically, it is over my time at Andover, which used to be the very source of my extrinsic motivation, that I’ve been lucky enough to find intrinsic motivations with some of my pursuits. I speak to you here today to share my most honest thoughts, and to encourage you to join me in on this reflection, so that perhaps you can let me in on your secret when you find your own intrinsic motivations,” said Xiao.
For Hsieh, finding joy and overcoming grief at Andover has been a continuous struggle. In her speech, she shared some of her epiphanies in her personal journey in discovering how to perceive and find joy.
“It took me a long time to understand that joy is not an achievement, it is not something that you reach and ascend to a higher plane. Joy is a relationship and, like every relationship, it has its ups and downs, so it is impossible to quantify it within a single moment,” said Hsieh. “Perhaps joy is not the absence of pain or sorrow, but the connection we find within it. So grab onto joy where you find it. Life is hard, I’m not sure it gets any easier, but in the words of my dearly departed Grande, ‘It’s a good life if you can stand it.’”
To conclude the ASM, Robinson told her story connecting with Amelia Vinton ’23, starting from their shared Biology 500 class in Fall Term of Upper year and ending with numerous adventures and subsequent discoveries. Semira shared the four pillars of life that she came upon with Vinton, the last of which they called “chocolate.”
Robinson explained, “Chocolate is about enjoying the little moments of bliss that come with your favorite snack or meaningless small talk. Chocolate is letting yourself indulge in life, it’s us telling you to relieve yourself of the stress of schoolwork and drama and to just live.” She concluded, “Everything is connected; perfection is an ideal, not a reality; the only constant is change; and chocolate. These pillars steady me because they remind me of simple truths, the things I don’t have control over. I hope you can find some comfort in them too,” said Robinson.
