Article by Adrianna Duggan, Class of 2014:
I still don’t quite believe that in just a few months I’ll be sitting in my last classes at Kellenberg. I don’t really believe that I won’t wake up, throw on my uniform, and drive the same route to school that I have been driving for the past six years. It doesn’t seem real that I won’t be squeezing my way through the halls, or sitting in my usual seat at midday prayer. That fact becomes hard to ignore on Alumni Day every year. As we see all our friends, Marianist Mentors, retreat leaders, or just familiar faces, we realize that all of these people just last year were, literally, sitting in the same seats as us. They, too, couldn’t believe that in just a few months they would be gone.
A few months before this, those same alumni were strolling through the courtyards, and guessing the Morning Prayer videos. A few months from now I’ll be in a dorm room at one of many possible colleges. Instead of talking about my “teachers”, I’ll talk about my “professors.” Instead of a uniform, I’ll be forced to match outfits, and instead of my faith being handed to me, I’ll have to seek it out on my own. It’s amazing how just a few months separate such radically different lifestyles.
Alumni Day is a bittersweet day for us seniors. We love seeing all of our friends, teammates and mentors walking through the halls again, as if they had never even left. On the other hand we realize that come next Thanksgiving break that will be us. Alumni Day, however, demonstrates a very important idea: that even once you graduate from Kellenberg, go to college, maybe even find a job and start a family of your own, you are always welcome back. What’s more, when you come back, things seem, for the most part, just as you left them. You are part of the Kellenberg family even after your school days here are over, and that is the most amazing thing that Kellenberg has to offer.