Page 26 - Menlo Magazine: Winter 2018

WINTER 2018
Dear My Freshman Self
Each year, when Menlo welcomes its new ninth graders at the freshman retreat, students are asked to write letters to their senior selves. e letters, which include the students’ greatest hopes and fears about high school, are saved and opened and read during the senior retreat. As the Class of 2017 was preparing for commencement festivities, a few students volunteered to write letters to their freshmen selves, sharing some thoughts, in their own words, about what they wish they would have known as ninth graders.
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the moments.
To my freshman self,
I’ve learned that life is made up of moments—times when you feel so alive with emotion that existence seems like an eternity. At Menlo, you will experience so many joyous, panicked, gut-
wrenching, sentimental, and beautiful moments. The days will feel long, the weeks short, and the years even shorter. As I scour my brain for what to say in my current point of transition, I can only remember
I’m thinking of moments like the exhilarating first “warm-ups” with the cast of Our Town before your first Menlo drama production. You practiced tongue twisters to get yourself enunciating before going onstage. When you and the cast slowly built up a cheer and exploded at the end screaming, you could feel your body pulsating with the excitement of being there. You looked around the room and observed everyone smiling and hugging.
Or the moment when you rushed the tennis courts after beating Sacred Heart. It was Senior Day and we were tied 3-3 with the final match playing, down to a tiebreaker. You sat with your team and held hands. You paced with Bill Shine and kept score on his clipboard. When your team won by two points and kept the famous Shine league winning streak, you all hugged so hard your ribs hurt. It would be a moment marked by pride and camaraderie.
Or, the moment when you felt devastated after getting a bio test back after studying for hours and still not doing well. You continued to sit in your seat after everyone left and silently cried into your hands. Your teacher came over with a box of tissues and talked with you until you felt better. That was a moment defined by growth. You’d learn in that moment to forgive yourself for your weaknesses and appreciate the authenticity of effort.
At these times, you will feel infinite, as if you could never feel anything but that emotion and that flash will be embroidered onto you forever. Menlo will give you a full range of moments. The good, the bad, the ones you regret, and the ones you wouldn’t trade for the world.
You probably want a list of all the mistakes you will make so you can avoid them. I won’t make that list. Though you probably don’t see it now, all those mistakes created moments that led you to who you would eventually become. Spoiler: you like who you become. She’s empathetic, independent, passionate, and spunky. Your path at Menlo has infinite possibilities; no decision is right or wrong.
So, as you sit there confused about my vague wisdom, here is what I want you to do: appreciate the moments. When you find your cheeks hurting from smiling too much or your stomach hurting from laughing, pause, take a look around, and breathe.
Now that I have closed the chapter of Menlo in my life, I don’t remember the days that were the same as the last but instead the days when I did something different, when I experienced a moment—when I got lunch with one of my favorite teachers or laughed on the Quad with people I wasn’t good friends with (yet).
You will remember a day when a friend was driving to lunch and in that moment, you closed your eyes and just listened to the sound of their voice, memorized their inflections, and cherished the feeling of being there with them. That moment, where you felt loved and happy, is the type of thing to hold on to, the type of thing to remember.
I won’t say Menlo won’t be hard. You will face challenges you believe you won’t be able to deal with. But those will be moments, and time will go on. You’ll accumulate your experiences and leave Menlo with an open heart and mind. As you embark on your journey, and I on mine, we must cherish our moments and create them. Our
life is spectacular.
Sincerely yours,
Amanda Crisci
2017 graduate of Menlo School