Commencement Speech, May 24, 2009 Elizabeth Wolinski ’09 !Co-President ! Good Morning. I know that there’s a tradition where the girl president cries, but I’d like you all to know that I won’t be doing that today. Class of 2009, did you think this day would ever come? This past week we began experiencing many of our “lasts”. Our last school meeting, our last classes, family style lunch, practices, and finally our last chapel at Old St. Anne’s. At this service Mr. Roach alluded to our last week saying that the friendships we’ve made the past two, three or four years would make this past week intense, complex, emotional and unforgettable. While the past seven days have been more fun than I can explain, Mr. Roach could not have been more correct in telling us just how complicated these final days would be. It’s easy to say the relationships we have built here in our time at St. Andrew’s will never be forgotten and we’ll remain friends far past when we part in about two days. It is harder to explain what these friendships actually mean. Coming to St. Andrew’s from day one, our lives have been consumed with square dances and then classes and homework, joining clubs, then try to figure out a way to remain an active member of GSA, Sista Space, Cornerstone, or any other club you might have joined. While you’re trying to juggle that while trying to write a Cardinal article or finish up a spread for the yearbook and then there are your sports practices that could last until 6 if you’re lucky and forget about any free time that night if you’re headed to an away game at Westtown or Hill. I hope you don’t think you can run to the dining hall and get a quick bite to eat and relax on the front lawn before study hall because you better shower, then hope you don’t miss dinner, and don’t even think about taking that clear cup and cutlery out onto the front lawn. If you’re not exhausted by this point, don’t worry because there’s a two hour study hall to finish up your two history papers, twenty math problems, that English journal that we all know is going to take way more than the suggested forty minutes. Or maybe it’s Monday night and you have your art major lab, or maybe it’s that lovely night we all enjoy where you sit in the hallway, or the common room, or the dining hall for two hours and you get no work done, so your free periods are taken up the next day scrambling, trying to fudge your way through just enough so that you can pretend you’re participating in class the next day. During all this, don’t forget to make friends along the way too. The beauty of the friends you make here is that everyone is going through exactly the same thing you are and we always find time to relax, and by relax I mean blow off the reading for tomorrow’s class, ‘cause let’s be honest, when else are you going to find the time to have a relationship with something other than your obligations. Relaxing, like how I waited until 4 this morning to finish my speech so that I could spend some quality time talking to my sophomores and tucking them in for the last time, to take one last trip to Waffle House to say goodbye to our beloved Carolyn, who devotedly waits on us and is excited to have a conversation every time we walk in the door. And then finally, just hanging out to cherish these last moments we have together in the main common room until I finally decided, okay, I think it’s time to break into the library to get my computer that I so trustingly left there out in the open and finish up that speech I have to give in a couple of hours, and I know all of you have had moments like that too. Spending time with you all has made the work and the difficulty of St. Andrew’s life possible, and for that I thank you. For those of you who don’t know, St. Andrew’s relationships and friendships are largely built on and strengthened by how much we complain and the competition for the most awkward moment of the day. This might seem trivial at first glance, but it’s comforting to know that you’re surrounded by people who can understand exactly what’s on your mind because they have the same English paper, the same history reading to do. Freshman year during Intro to Community Life, Mrs. Hutchinson told us that our time at boarding school is multiplied by three. So spending four years here has actually been like spending twelve. And at times I know we’ve all felt like that’s true. Time being multiplied by three, means that the friendships we have made are twelve year-old friendships too. Living on dorm in close quarters with people and having limited access to the outside world forces you into a situation where you become really good friends really fast. And now that we have come to our final day at St. Andrew’s we can all say, pretty confidently, that even though we will surely be going our separate ways very shortly we will not lose these friendships that we have had and will continue to have that have meant so much and have had such deep meaning in our lives. Because I do not think I could say it any better than this; I’ll leave it up to the eternal words of Nathan Morris, Michael McCary, Shawn Stockman, and Wayna Morris. It may not make entire sense, but it’s relevant enough: “Although we’ve come to the end of the road, still I can’t let you go, it’s a natural, you belong to me, I belong to you. Come to the end of the road, still I can’t let you go, it’s a natural, you belong to me, I belong to you.” ! Thank you.