An Address To The Class of 2016

Bienvenidos, ni hao, jambo, bienvenue, salām. A warm welcome to all who are gathered here today. For today we share in the celebration of potential. In a little less than four years you will reconvene here once again in the celebration of accomplishment, but that is for another time. 

Over summer I was fortunate enough to live on campus under the employment of the Office of Admissions, giving tours to students and working on several projects which allowed me to have a hand in the creation of future classes for St. Lawrence.

I gave tours to mostly rising seniors who were immersed in the college search process, but on occasion I would find myself giving tours to students who had already received admittance and had accepted the offers to join this, the class of 2016. Some of these students were filled with such excitement about starting their time at St. Lawrence that they wanted to once again be shown these lovely grounds, others were unsure about their decision and needed the reassurance which can be found in the conversations accompanying tours of campus. 

I gave one of these tours to an extremely enthusiastic classmate of yours just over two weeks ago. She was a delightful young lady who wanted to see her room and show her mother the campus before she officially became a matriculated student. During our conversation I began to think back to my time as an incoming student, and being two years removed I could not quite place my feelings from then. I wanted to know what was going through her head at the time, what anxieties and fears and excitements are gripping those that sit in front of me today. So I asked her, what would the class of 2016 like to hear from a current student. She told me that the two things which will occupy your thoughts on this fine afternoon are: will I make friends, and did I make the right decision. Here are my thoughts:

Did I make the right choice is a question which cannot simply be answered at this time or by a single person. Each of you will find many different things in your experiences here, but for many of you it will take time to feel comfortable.  If you do not question your reasons for being here at any point during your time here, you will never come to fully appreciate why you are ultimately here. So if these thoughts of doubt do cross your mind now or in the not too distance future, whether it is for just a day or an entire month, don’t panic, instead of assuming that you are not in the right place or assuming things would have gone differently somewhere else, ask yourself what you can do to make the most of your experiences here, because that is when the power St. Lawrence truly takes effect. 

Reiff FYP (my dorm) 2010.

I was given the opportunity to speak in front of a number of you last spring for the admitted students days. I had a moustache at the time and my guess is many of you had not made your college decision then. Much has changed, whether through the imperativeness of time or within the better interest of grooming, and now we find ourselves here, not at a crossroads but positioned upon a path. At the time I spoke about how college is an expansive process and that the decision you make will only offer more opportunities in the future. I still believe this to be true. At the time I also expressed the need to close other doors along the way. 

Whether you came to St. Lawrence as a first choice school or not, we each have one or more schools which we could have seen ourselves attending. And we tend to idealize whatever schools they might have been.  During your time here some things will not go as you had planned. You may not do as well in a class as you would have like, or a relationship may fall asunder. And at these times it is likely that you assume that things would have gone differently somewhere else, because you have no reason to know otherwise. Ultimately this decision to come to St. Lawrence falls at the expense of attending other schools or realizing other opportunities which could have occupied your four years of study. I hope you will recognize this choice not as a regret but as a reason to make the most of this road.

And with this decision to mould the experience to your benefit, you will find yourself among people who will challenge you and eventually transform to those lifelong friends and mentors. The best advice I feel I can give is that you should not expect to find your best friends in your first week here, you have plenty of time to meet people who you will enjoy spending time with, who you will find yourself comfortable with and intrigued by, but you can’t expect the friends you make at the beginning of your freshmen year to understand you like those you have enjoyed while growing up back home. However, there is something very special about college, about living, learning, playing and exploring with so many young minds, and the relationships you develop here will transcend those you have made in other stages of your lives, but this does take time. The college experience, especially the St. Lawrence experience, is truly defined not by the spaces you will occupy, but by the relationships you will forge with your peers and professors.  

 Reiff FYP (my first group as an orientation leader) 2011

In these first few days and even through your time here leave your door open, not just for the added benefit of a lovely cross breeze but to welcome others into your room, be receptive to those around and continue to carry an open mind.

It is my firmest belief that St. Lawrence is a uniquely special place filled with truly genuine people, and I could ask for nothing more. I hope you will grow to feel the same in time.  

On behalf of the student body let me be the first of many to welcome you to St. Lawrence, I offer my sincerest hope that over these four years you find exactly what you are looking for, even if you do not know what it is at this time. There is a phrase you will hear around campus at moments of realization, celebration, or refined humility and I offer it you now as a welcome, as a way to celebrate your choice to join our community, and as a signal to the start of this lifelong adventure as a Laurentian. It is a simple phrase of only four words, but its utility is endless. Here we go Saints. Thank you.