As the Class of 2024 reminisces over the past four years 在这里 at Fenwick, one quote specifically comes to mind by Robin Sharma: “Change is hardest at the beginning, 中间最乱，最后最好." I feel as if this quote perfectly encapsulates the spirit of our seniors sitting 在这里 today.

Even before our years 在这里 at Fenwick, we took the anxiety-ridden entrance exam. 心房似乎更大了, 老师们俯视着我们, and the classrooms themselves were menacing. Unfortunately for us, these worries manifested true.

Our first experiences 在这里 at Fenwick were not what we expected when we took our entrance exam. Instead of meeting the entire class through our classes, 体育, 通过俱乐部招聘会参与进来, 我们被分成A组和B组, assigned classrooms for our lunches/ study halls, and the addition of masks certainly did not help when making new friends. Many of us, like me, name our freshman year as our worst year of high school. However, as every day passed on, it became our new normal. 我们班适应了环境，没有停滞不前. 我们确实成为了朋友. 我们在zoom上加入了俱乐部. We played and dominated all of our 体育 spring semester. We succeeded in the hardest beginning possible. It was because of this hard beginning that made our class determined, 驱动, and discarding our memories from freshman year.

And so, we used sophomore year as an 机会 to find success and to thrive. We were free from having to be split up into A and B groups, 我们下面的班有一个俱乐部展览会, 我们终于有了真正的运动赛季!  The opportunities we missed out on the year before made us more determined than ever. We did kill it our sophomore year: football state championship, 州越野锦标赛, 王牌州冠军, and Math Team state championship were all a part of our “comeback” year. This was the year we expected when we took that entrance exam. Things especially got exciting when we were approved to be maskless! Seeing everyone’s full faces and sparkling smiles as you pass them in the hallway made all of us especially excited for our next two years in this building. 

还记得“最混乱”那部分吗?? Yeah, many of us would consider that our junior year. 美联社类, practice SAT or ACTs applying for scholarships, 扶贫项目, 服务项目, and so much more all while maintaining good grades to stand out to colleges. Good luck sophomores… All of these trials and tribulations became what many of us would consider our messiest year of high school. 尽管如此，我们还是成功了. We have national merit finalists in this room with us from those practice SATs. AP distinguished scholars sit next to each other, and all of us survived junior year. Just as we had done the year before, and the year before that. We long awaited the greatest year in history of every high school, senior year. 

我们刚刚经历过. 10 short months of 写作 out your essays on common app, 或者如果你像我一样, 写作, 重写, 再重写一遍. 10 short months of seeing our friends every day. 10 short months becoming 凯洛 retreatants, and then leaders.10 short months of seeing an acquaintance one last time. 短短10个月，每天都有新的最后. 我们最后一场返校比赛, 周五夜灯, 篮球比赛, 与朋友聚会, 或与女士会面. 邓恩. 我们都看着过去的10个月飞逝而过. Every one of us should cherish every moment we have for these 4 years. 

Juniors: Be excited for the future that will come, 不要陷入最混乱的一年, 每一次拒绝都是一次重定向. 二年级学生:不断尝试新事物, 认识新朋友, 加入新的社团, 在你的下一步中保持冒险精神, 新年级. 新生们:现在就记住这种感觉. Remember every feeling, every moment, every new classmate, activity. Take it from us, we don’t get to experience a “new” in high school anymore. 

开始新的开始的前辈们, a whole four more years: learn your lesson from high school and don’t take these memories for granted. I’m going to take a note from our orientation, our first time sitting in this auditorium and ask you to look to your left, 看看你的右边. These classmates of yours around you have been through it with you the past four years. Remember these faces, remember your memories with them. 为他们感到兴奋. Know that each and every one of us will find your own successes in life. And as we go on with our lives, remember this exact building in which we all came from, Fenwick. 

So we say goodbye to this auditorium and to Fenwick, 但我们迎接每一次新的经历, 机会, 面对我们的方式.

谢谢你，esball世博, 谢谢各位老师, and thank you fellow classmates for the best past four years. 

我们永远是修士.