To the Senior Class:

Hotchkiss is not a perfect institution. From Wi-Fi cutoffs to 10 p.m. curfews that apply equally to 14-year-old freshmen and postgraduates on the cusp of manhood, the various rules on campus can seem like an outright version of Orwell’s 1984 as Senior spring approaches.

However, as hearts flutter and grow to desire more than what is offered at Hotchkiss, it is important to remember all that Hotchkiss has given us. There is a lot to be grateful for, and I implore you to keep that in mind as your days in Lakeville come to an end.

I distinctly remember one experience from when I was a Prep that shaped the way I view Hotchkiss as a community. One night, I got into a terrible fight with my parents over the phone. It left me pretty devastated — so much so that my roommate felt it was best to let my advisor know.

As I sulked in my bed in Coy, I heard a knock at the door. I opened it. It was my advisor, cloaked in a full-piece trench coat and matching beret set. He had driven over at two in the morning, despite the storm, just to check on me in person. I was shocked.

Ten minutes later, I heard another knock on the door. I opened it again. It was my dorm fac armed with a baseball bat. It turns out that one of the kids on my floor had seen a strange man in a trench coat enter my room and thought there was an intruder. The dorm fac had put the building on security lockdown and was ready for Spartan combat. The scene was so hysterical that it alleviated my worries completely.

When you leave, you’ll realize that Hotchkiss stands out in this world due to the community that you are a part of. Rarely will you be at a place with such a concentrated number of talented people who care about you and truly want to see you succeed.

Spend time with friends who you might never see again. Treat faculty with respect. Their lessons will stay with you for a lifetime, while what you’ve given them perhaps pales in comparison. They’ve dedicated themselves to the noblest of causes and deserve your gratitude.

As your time as a student comes to an end, I implore you to take advantage of all that Hotchkiss has to offer. Skip a class. Use the photo lab. Go to the lake. Eat at the Woodland. Go skinny-dipping. Soak it all in. We are incredibly sheltered from the harsh realities of life on campus and it can be overwhelming in the real world. Trust me, real life will come, so enjoy this time to the fullest of your capacity.

When you graduate, there will be limitless paths for you to take. Don’t limit yourself. So many Hotchkiss grads fall into the trap of confusing opportunity cost with risk. Just because your friends are all doing something or your parents took a certain path does not mean it is the right path for you. The world is changing, and nobody knows what it’ll look like in five years. Better to fail doing something you love than succeed doing something you resent.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, because the truth is that everyone will try to give you advice when you graduate and beyond. Their words may be genuine and well-intended, but at the end of the day, those words are not yours; rather, they are shaped by the individual life experiences of the person sitting in front of you.

I implore you to interpret these pieces of advice how they may best serve you, as your life experiences will be different, along with your path and the advice that you will eventually pass down.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to alumni, even if you’ve never met them. Everyone seeks to give back in one way or another.