Page 20 - The Gonzaga Record 2004
P. 20
V aled icto ry S peech
Good evening. Tonight we are gathered to look back on our six years here in
Gonzaga. We take some time to take stock of what this experience means to us and
we look to the future, to our lives after, but not without, Gonzaga. Tonight we
gathered on the front steps outside the college for the last time, and I was thinking
of the first time we gathered there, on the morning of our first day at school here.
And things were a lot different. None of us knew more than a few others in the
year, we didn’t know what the others were like or how we were going to get on.
Looking around, our heads told us these will soon be our classmates and friends,
but it wasn’t as easy to believe then. But over the intervening six years we have
changed a great deal, as a year and as individuals. Gonzaga has a history of classes
graduating with great friendships having been formed. This class is no different,
and the friendships we have formed here, as well as the sense of community with
in our year, will last long after our time as students has finished. But even more
important is the sense of individuality we have developed. This school is commit
ted to promoting the search for greater justice in the world. But Gonzaga does not
attempt to stimulate the students to one particular political view or religious out
look, nor could it. Having spent six years together, our opinions on every aspect of
life are just as diverse as they were on the first day here. What this school has done
for us is to actively nurture this individual thinking, respecting one’s intellect and
encouraging expression through the Jesuit art of rhetoric. But it wasn’t always so.
The idea of expressing yourself freely seemed a remote possibility in the uncertain
ty of first year. Survival in a strange world was our chief concern. The worlds of
school and home were in constant contact through the initially dreaded, but sub
sequently celebrated journals, and the threat of Saturday morning detention was
held constantly above our heads. A world where everyone prayed before they did
anything, and no form of writing could begin without being preceded by the mys
terious AMDG.
We did get some sense during first year of what was to come later, in that most
Gonzagan of experiences - the Opera. Listening to the CD earlier this week I was
reminded of how strange, but also how enjoyable an experience that was. You often
hear people talk about things that happen in Gonzaga and they say that it would
never happen anywhere else, and that’s probably exaggerated sometimes. But I
think it’s a fair assumption to say that no other school expects its first years, still
fragile and unsure of themselves, to perform on stage for three nights in pastel-
coloured blouses, long flowing skirts and make-up. They don’t know what they’re
missing.
Second and third year saw us becoming more at home in the school. We came
to represent the school in all things Junior, which meant that we formed the sec
Good evening. Tonight we are gathered to look back on our six years here in
Gonzaga. We take some time to take stock of what this experience means to us and
we look to the future, to our lives after, but not without, Gonzaga. Tonight we
gathered on the front steps outside the college for the last time, and I was thinking
of the first time we gathered there, on the morning of our first day at school here.
And things were a lot different. None of us knew more than a few others in the
year, we didn’t know what the others were like or how we were going to get on.
Looking around, our heads told us these will soon be our classmates and friends,
but it wasn’t as easy to believe then. But over the intervening six years we have
changed a great deal, as a year and as individuals. Gonzaga has a history of classes
graduating with great friendships having been formed. This class is no different,
and the friendships we have formed here, as well as the sense of community with
in our year, will last long after our time as students has finished. But even more
important is the sense of individuality we have developed. This school is commit
ted to promoting the search for greater justice in the world. But Gonzaga does not
attempt to stimulate the students to one particular political view or religious out
look, nor could it. Having spent six years together, our opinions on every aspect of
life are just as diverse as they were on the first day here. What this school has done
for us is to actively nurture this individual thinking, respecting one’s intellect and
encouraging expression through the Jesuit art of rhetoric. But it wasn’t always so.
The idea of expressing yourself freely seemed a remote possibility in the uncertain
ty of first year. Survival in a strange world was our chief concern. The worlds of
school and home were in constant contact through the initially dreaded, but sub
sequently celebrated journals, and the threat of Saturday morning detention was
held constantly above our heads. A world where everyone prayed before they did
anything, and no form of writing could begin without being preceded by the mys
terious AMDG.
We did get some sense during first year of what was to come later, in that most
Gonzagan of experiences - the Opera. Listening to the CD earlier this week I was
reminded of how strange, but also how enjoyable an experience that was. You often
hear people talk about things that happen in Gonzaga and they say that it would
never happen anywhere else, and that’s probably exaggerated sometimes. But I
think it’s a fair assumption to say that no other school expects its first years, still
fragile and unsure of themselves, to perform on stage for three nights in pastel-
coloured blouses, long flowing skirts and make-up. They don’t know what they’re
missing.
Second and third year saw us becoming more at home in the school. We came
to represent the school in all things Junior, which meant that we formed the sec
