Some days, it’s really great to be the Principal around here! Some days, it is less great to be the Principal, but I’ll leave that for another blog! J As the academic year draws to a close, Brescia kicked off this period of celebrating our graduates with our inaugural Graduation Breakfast on March 31. This event attracted more than 75 of our students who are expecting to graduate in a few short weeks, and we enjoyed their company over a hot breakfast and plenty of coffee.
Sitting there, I was drawn back to my own experience, living the final weeks of my undergraduate experience at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. I had been heavily involved in all that St. Mike’s had to offer, from Student Council to facilitating Orientation and so on. I distinctly recall feeling overwhelmed and excited…the kind of excited that borders on anxiety as the future expands before you. I’d had a wonderful experience but, to be quite frank, I was ready for a change. I needed a break from the people and the routines and from what had become somewhat monotonous. I was ready to lunge into the next phase in my life. Approaching graduation, I was cocky enough to recognize the impact that I believed I’d had on St. Mike’s, but not nearly as aware of the phenomenal impact that St. Mike’s had had on me!
Until I left.
You see, I was a very different woman from the one who had arrived four years earlier. It took me a bit of time and a bit of distance to recognize that I was surer of myself, that I had adopted new directions and passions, and that I had greater confidence in what I hoped to achieve in my life. And I had some plans!
In the year following my graduation, I returned to campus for St. Mike’s version of Homecoming and I was overwhelmed by my good memories and by my sense of how much that experience had contributed to my identity. I had been blind to this in the final leg of my undergraduate marathon, and even during graduation. It took some time and distance to focus on that reality and it was such an unanticipated pleasure when the penny dropped!
Those of you who are familiar with St. Mike’s, know that it boasts an incredibly engaged alumni body. At that first gathering that I attended, I connected not only with my own friends and classmates, but with alumni who had graduated decades before I was born. Suddenly, I realized that I was part of a huge network of proud, confident alumni of St. Michael’s College. That sense of belonging has never left me since that first Homecoming.
For our graduates, we recognize that at the moment, many of you just want to finish and get on with the next step. You may not see the impact that Brescia has had on you. We have certainly benefited from the impact that you have each had on Brescia as your handprints will remain behind, forever changing the people, programming, and collective accomplishments of Brescia. I look forward to hearing all about your journeys at Homecoming in a few short months when we will pay special recognition to the Class of 2010! Until then, study hard and enjoy your moment in the sun!