At graduation this year, Luna Schindler-Payne and Declan Miller represented the class of 2022. Their speeches are excerpted below.
“When I think about the past four years, memories of sunsets and studying flood my mind. As I sort through the joyful and the challenging moments, two words that continue to come up: Gratitude and Change. These words mark the truest feelings I have in regard to these past four years.
DECLAN MILLER ’22
In my opinion, learning is some of the best change there is and high school after all offers lots of opportunity for growth. There is the academic learning which has been made possible by the supportive and caring community that is Seattle Waldorf School. Our class understands that when we feel cared for and supported by those around us, our learning improves. But we also changed and grew as humans, coming to understand how to be a more kind and compassionate people in this world. We learned how to navigate differences, and how to better respect others. These changes in ourselves are lasting and will influence future areas of studies and the relationships we have with those around us.” — Declan Miller [Read more…]
LUNA SCHINDLER-PAYNE ’22
“Over the last four years, five days a week, seven hours a day, we have grown up in the light of each other, sharing energy, bouncing off the walls, or sitting quietly listening to each other be vulnerable. We have been there for each other, sometimes only from a distance, shining warmth in the dark moments by a smile in the hallway or saying hi on Zoom. Through the changes and the challenges, though we were imperfect friends and classmates and couldn’t always show up fully, we cared for each other and still do. And so, as we stand here today it is hard to say goodbye, hard to embrace a change, when the present is so sweet. I am standing here now, reminded of all the good times, and wishing we didn’t have to part ways. But deep down, we know that it is time to go. Time to head into the wind and search for meaning outside of high school, time to turn into the darkness of the unknown.
But we will not truly be flying alone, because a constellation is fixed, it is not something to be blown away in the wind or washed away by the ocean. And even if the clouds obscure the stars on particularly rainy days, beyond those clouds we are still up there, shining for each other, however distant.
Take my hand again and remember the first day we met
Our timelines braiding into one for 4 years
Like a confluence of rivers
Walk down the passages of conversations and smiles in the hallway
As we grew from strangers to classmates to friends
Dancing in sunlight and starlight
And now that we are on the last steps of our journey together
Take my hand for a moment and remember how far we have come
Remember with me the hard parts that tried us
And the moments in which we felt like we were flying
Remember shouting from the mountain tops
And singing in the tunnels under the ground
Take my hand again to celebrate and mourn the fate of time
The excitement of a new horizon
And how hard it is to let go of this one
Take my hand and hold it for a moment longer
Before we let go and go onward in the light of our constellation.”
— Luna Schindler-Payne [Read more…]
