Senior Address by Niki Mani '15

Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Dr. Fox, for your gracious introduction.

 

Class of 2015, our families, our distinguished guests, and our LJCDS family, it is a great honor for me to address each of you this morning. Today, we celebrate the success of the Class of 2015 and reflect on each of our unique journeys that brought us where we sit today.

 

Lifers, you have spent 2,106,000 minutes. High schoolers you have spent 648,000 minutes. These numbers reflect the time we have spent in these quads, theaters, classrooms and fields together. We came here knowing that we would be pushed to our intellectual limits. Knowing that we would be surrounded by bright, quirky minds. Knowing that LJCDS, with its spirit and its character, would be our home.

 

I wish I could stand before you and say that my 15 years here were filled only with cupcakes, rainbows and butterflies. I wish I could say that LJCDS never made me stressed out, frustrated or constantly sleep deprived. Trust me, it did ALL of those things.

 

But none of us came here for rainbows and butterflies. We did not come here just to learn—we could have done that anywhere (even with our friends in maroon in downtown La Jolla). No, we came here for a particular kind of education. And that is precisely what we have achieved.

 

Here, we have gotten to know each other so that we could fall in love, have our hearts broken, study with each other, push each other farther than we ever thought we could go, revel in novels together, race to the finish line beside one another, survive in the wilderness together and unlock each other with our differences and become a bridge for each other through our similarities.

 

But we did not change overnight. High school is so often portrayed as a superficial, breeding ground for gossip and malicious intent. And yes, perhaps some of us were incredibly superficial freshman year—sometimes standing in the corner at dances judging each other or caring way too much about our Instagram following-to-followers ratio or feeling like we had to be like someone else. But, unlike “Gossip Girl” and unlike any other TV show or movie, any sense of the artificial here, in our class, quickly died out, and something else grew in its place something beautiful. I submit that the artificial started to fade as each of us truly embraced our Country Day character.

 

And by character, I mean the structure and the system in place to support us. As high-achieving students, we perhaps entered with a certain narrow belief about competition and success as being against one another. However, our teachers showed us that being high achieving is and must be compatible with care for the community. They showed us by setting the standards so high but treating us holistically. Our teachers checked in with us during high-stress competition season, during large-scale community service projects, during moments of illness, unhappiness and crisis. This is not to say we were ever coddled. Parents, we were never coddled. We were asked to rise to every occasion, but we were shown grace and mercy by those at the top, which meant that our community grew to show the same to one another.

 

For this reason, I wish to share not only the achievements of the Class of 2015, but also the moments of communal care and intimacy—moments of compassion that we all participated in, shared, and grew tremendously from, but such moments that were not advertised or announced. These are the moments that changed us from individuals to a community.

 

Those of us who roam the hallways of Country Day can attest to the warmth of the Class of 2015. We are filled with genuine compliments and concerns for each other. There is a level of attention and care that is not just between best friends but also among acquaintances that make the environment so much more comfortable and inviting. I cannot count the number of times kind words regarding haircuts, clothing and smiles were exchanged in the hallways, how many times I heard someone tell another how intelligent he or she is, so that we are motivating each other and consistently expressing our admiration.

 

And it’s not just compliments:

 

To the surprise of those outside of Country Day, we have all gone to prom together as one cohesive group—twice. Not only did we show up to prom as one, but we even after-partied as one. We are each other’s companions. We are each other’s super fans and epic supporters, attending sporting events not just as the audience but as human megaphones with Matt and Ali so amplified that everyone, including the opposing team, could feel the love for Country Day volleyball!

 

We offer peer tutoring during our free time—shoutout to Sophia Kostos for spending D free with me solving complex differential equations. And I know there are others in the Class of 2015 who also received and offered graciousness and generosity.

 

Parents, you should know that the Class of 2015 uses social media to love each other, not hate on each other. Case in point, I am going to read you some of Tanuja’s Facebook status updates to us seniors.

 

February 13, 2014

Congratulations! It has been a pleasure watching both of you grow through these years. (heart emoji) Love both of you so much.

 

April 5, 2015

Hi, Sweetheart. You're perfect. (heart emoji) Don't forget that.

 

This is clearly evidence of social media love in action!

 

This constant exchange has made it so that there are no strangers among us; we are all friends and admirers of each other. It is to the point where movies such as “Mean Girls” that focus on high school nastiness and bullying seem completely alien to my class—we’re like: what is this fictional high school Hollywood keeps shoving down our throats? Because we have created something completely different.

 

In an elite private college prep school like ours, one would expect us to be guarded in a traditional sense, only putting our best resume forward. But our class has practiced contending strength as vulnerability. We are so strong that we are not afraid to be vulnerable with each other. In fact, we have been encouraged to be open and honest. Contrary to Hollywood depictions of high school hostility and deception, we not only share our noteworthy accomplishments but also openly discuss our failures, including our bad test scores or the dreaded "no" from a dream college.

 

Because of the modeling we witnessed and because strength was paired with vulnerability, we were able to grow from our differences and thrive.

 

Within our class, we experience a co-existence of difference—different politics, different values, different experiences. But together, our brains have become full from the conversations we have had. We have been encouraged to question everything and anything – even when we didn’t have the answer or when the answer may not even have existed. We have been encouraged to contemplate everything from infinite limits to neuronal structures to the ubiquity of classical and operant conditioning. And I am so humbled to be inspired each day by members of the Class of 2015.

 

We have suffered none of the pain of the “Real World” MTV characters. Instead, each of us focused on pursuing our passions and embracing our unique identities. Each of our accomplishments in itself is a grand novel.

 

Let me tell you all. We are quite the graduating class.

 

Among us are:

 

 

I have read this speech so many times, but every time I get through this section, I think, “This is phenomenal.” We are original. Period. Hopefully Hollywood will be catching up to us.

 

But it is impossible to recognize the talents of our Class without acknowledging the inventive contributions made by our La Jolla Country Day family of teachers, counselors, class parents, and administrators—in particular Ms. [Beth] Cross, Dr. [Greg] Martin, Mr. [Todd] Ballaban, Mr. [Dave] Jenkins, Dr. [Judy] Fox, Mrs. [Shital] Parikh, and Mrs. [Clare] Sturtevant all of whom created an environment that fostered innovation, exchange and support. And the most sincere thank you to our parents—you are still stuck with us. Thank you, now and always.

 

And before each of us walks on the stage to accept his or her diploma, it is important for us to reflect not only on our peers and our great mentors but also on the transitions we have each seen in our lives and the various ways we separate ourselves from the Hollywood high school stereotype.

 

We have gone from dreading Friday assemblies to embracing the cheering and energy that inspire all of us, particularly Greg Coffman ’15, whose shrieking outbursts have become an integral part of our spirit and also Dan Cooper ’15 whose weekly absurdly creative stories will always be missed.

 

We have gone from cliquey, occasionally bratty, students to those so stimulated by intellectual curiosity that they extend English class discussions into lunchtime.

 

We have gone from immature students desiring invisibility to confident, 80s aficionados wearing tie-dyed pants and carrying jam boxes around the senior lounge.

 

Above all, we have seen an enhanced ability and desire to cooperate and to communicate—we share a need to move one another and to connect.

 

The comedian Colbert has described something that I think we can all agree on, which is you will truly serve only what you love because service is love made visible. If you love your friends, you will serve your friends. If you love your community, you will serve your community

And if you love only yourself, then you will serve only yourself, and you will have only yourself. So try, each day, to love others and to serve others.

 

And remember that the bonds you have made with the people sitting beside you have been incredibly valuable thus far and will be invaluable assets in composing your future adult lives.

 

Thank you.