By JULIET MOORE
President
Class of 2023
Hi Everyone,
First, I just want to start by thanking each and every one of you for engaging in our class’s community for the past 4 years. Student government has the resources to plan an event, but it’s the class showing up that made it memorable and made our efforts mean something. I also want to give a huge shoutout to our Vice President, Ian Smith, whose time and dedication to our class was a big part of our success, even if it meant constantly harassing students to buy a raffle ticket for the teachers lot. Our work accompanied by the rest of our officers, Anna Wong, Lily Kavanaugh, and Talya Hamburg, truly made everything we did possible. Under the guidance of our class advisors, Ms. Loewald and Ms. Gillette, our team learned what it meant to be leaders and we could not have asked for better mentors. We are blessed to have an amazing community in Melrose, with our teachers, families, coaches, and administrators that have supported this class in so many ways.
People often say that our real life starts after today, but I disagree. Our journey began a long time ago, today just happens to be the day when the path we have been traveling on together splits into 223 different roads. Up until now, we have been walking as one. 13 years, that is how much time most of us have invested in this community, and in ourselves at Melrose. Fall of 2019 we all eagerly jumped into high school with specific dreams and high expectations. After begging all of you to buy Froshmore tickets, promising that it would be worth it, the school shut down on the very date that stopped this event, stopped the rest of our freshman year, and completely altered our lives. We literally did not see each other again until junior year because, coincidentally, everyone’s camera broke during sophomore year Google meets. When we finally returned junior year, no class came back stronger than we did during Spirit Week. The massive spirit spike upset, our hallway decorations, and everyone’s participation in spirit days, ultimately led to a “tie” between the junior and senior classes. Then, suddenly it was the end of junior year, and with only slight constructive criticism from you all, we held prom in the courtyard and had the best grilled cheeses of our lives.
And then we made it, senior year, no masks, our first normal year of high school, but crazy enough also our last.
You hear a large range of answers when someone reminisces about their high school days. Some people claim it was the best 4 years of their lives, and others have completely blocked out the misery from their brains. Either way, I am wishing that none of us leave here saying either. MHS has just been preparing us for bigger things. While I hope that most of us were able to enjoy these past 4 years, I can confidently say that we all will have better years ahead, thanks to the lessons and experiences that MHS has given us. We’ve learned the importance of community, and saw it during each packed football game, volleyball set, and the sold-out shows for “Mean Girls.” We’ve learned how to create new communities with how fast friendships formed just by changing up the seating charts. And after losing my father this past December, I learned just how strong this community is with the support me and my family received from everyone in Melrose.
Growing up, my dad used to say the phrase “Always leave a party when you’re having fun,” and I never really understood what he meant. Why leave something so good, so familiar? I never understood until now. But now, it is precisely what we are doing. We’ve had our fun. Crowding around the LC tables, bumper-to-bumper fights in the Knoll, the chants our student sections screamed, all of these memories are irreplaceable. But MHS has given us everything it possibly could, so it’s time to move on to bigger things. Better? Perhaps. Different? Definitely. But whatever this next chapter has in store for you, go into it knowing that we had this journey together and that is what defines us as the class of 2023. Thank you for letting me be your class leader for the last four years, it has been an honor.