To the Class of 2020

We delivered gift bags to the seniors. In the bag was their cap and gown, alumni sticker, gift from their House parent, a homemade cookie from Sra Santiago, and a letter from teachers and staff to each student. I would like to share mine.



To the Class of 2020:

Once upon a time, I was a student-teacher. As my time in that classroom was ending (after only a semester of school), I asked the cooperating teacher I was with, “how do you let them go? You are with these kids everyday, don’t you miss them?” She laughed, having 30 years experience, and said, “it gets easier.”

It does get easier to say goodbye. Especially after the final nine weeks. If we were still in school, you would be DONE. Done, done, done. You would have either thought or said aloud something to the effect, “It doesn’t matter. I am going to graduate even if I don’t get this done.” You would have chanced singing the real lyrics at prom, hoping those old uncool chaperones didn’t know the real words and couldn’t understand you anyways. You would have probably had a second senior skip day, maybe at IHOP, just to steal the thunder from Class of 2019 a little. Some of you would find yourself in the Think Lab even though you don’t have any classes there and you definitely would have cookies from the cafeteria with you. You would try to get out of adoration or art or yearbook, claiming you didn’t need a pass, only to have your name called over the PA. You would be tardy more often (even if that is possible for some of you). You would say, or think, “I can’t wait to get out of this place.”

We didn’t get this part of the year together. This is the thing that makes me sad. It is my favorite part of the year. It’s not all the “events” we will miss. It’s the down time together. We didn’t get to that point in the year that made the goodbye easier. (That point I was ready to kick you out of the nest. Fly little bird, cya later).

Luckily, your class has a giant personality and we made some great memories during the time we did have. As the teachers sent me their letters to you and I was able to read them, many made me cry, many made me laugh, and all of them made me miss you all terribly. 

I want to share with you my favorite quote, by CS Lewis, which has gotten me through job changes and life changes:

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

It’s time for you to hatch. It doesn’t feel like you had enough time as an egg in our little Kennedy nest, but you have to hatch. You cannot fly while you are an egg. So ready or not, I have to be ready to kick you out of the nest. Fly and do great things. Soar like an Eagle. I know you have it in you. 

All my love,
Mrs. Alyse Consiglio

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Graduation of the Netflix Generation

Image
  Good morning Kennedy Family. It is with joy that I address you, the 60th graduating class of John F. Kennedy High School. This week we have talked about and experienced the rich traditions of JFK, including our legacy families and alumni. Your many successes are now entwined with those lasting traditions and your class has been written into our history. Your time at Kennedy has also been marked by an extreme uptick in technology used at our school– in 6th grade, we became the first school in Trumbull County to be 1:1 devices, K-12 and the creation of our state of the art Think Lab. The following years brought on the addition of security cameras to assist Coach K with his ever-watchful eye over the building and new web-based resources like Google Classroom and edPuzzle became our everyday tools (here’s to you, Mr. Codispoti). This blending of tradition and technology reminds me of the label given to my generation, the Xennials. Many of the parents here were also born at this t...
Read more

School Start Eve

There's a certain electricity in the air at Upper Campus. It's the anticipation of students starting school.  My favorite holiday is Christmas Eve. The anticipation of Christmas morning is palpable. From the time I was a kid, waiting to see what was under the tree to today as a mom, hoping my girls are excited for the gifts I carefully selected--the anticipation is better than the actual celebration.  Tomorrow will be better than today, because I will actually see my "kids." But the anticipation is still pretty satisfying. The hope of a new year, with new students, new classes, new possibilities awaits. Who will rise to be the valedictorian of the senior class? Which sports will make a deep post-season run? Which teacher will shine in a new assignment? The possibilities are endless tonight. We have worked tirelessly this summer. From the early days of June putting together the calendar of events and master schedule, to hiring new teachers and creating new courses, to ...
Read more

Commencement Speech 2023

Image
Good morning Kennedy Family. It is with joy that I address you, the graduating class of 2023. It is also with sadness, hope, love, and respect that I address you because, as Mr. Codispoti tells me, “you get too attached to the seniors.” and honestly it’s never been more true than this year. As Winnie the Pooh said, How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. I’d like to start by sharing a story from the late 1900s. I was in middle school and we had the same English teacher for 3 years in a row. At the end of 7th grade, our final year in the building, she would write a poem about the students in the class; funny stories she would remember or things she admired about us. This was a big deal to the students and we could not wait to hear it. What I didn’t realize was that it was probably a big deal for her too. To grow close with a group of kids for a few years and see them leave is hard– and the better the students, the harder the ending. The pressure of a poem I’m...
Read more