Head of School’s Notebook — Last Times

May 3, 2019

Back in August of 2009, my daughter went to the annual Cate square dance. She was beginning her senior year and she and many of her friends were determined to make it a great Ho-down!  She returned bereft.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. The dance seemed great to me, but Grace was clearly in distress.

“Dad,” she said amidst copious tears, “That was my last Cate square dance.”

While I may have suggested it was a little early to get nostalgic less than a week into senior year, I understood her emotion. We all wrestle with it, albeit usually later in the school year than Grace did.

Today is the day our seniors wear the sweatshirt of the college they plan to attend, so the coming transition is especially conspicuous. And it’s exciting. But it is never easy to leave the familiar and often it is just as difficult for those of us who are left behind.

Last night our volleyball team played a second round CIF game against La Serna High School down in Whittier. La Serna is one of the top seeds in the tournament, and they should be given that the school’s enrollment in nearly 3,000.  But Cate showed up to play, as we always do, pushing the favored team all the way to their limit before conceding defeat 25-23 in the fourth game.

For the five seniors on that team, one of whom happens to be my son, the game represents the last time they will put on a uniform and compete for Cate. During the two-plus-hour ride back to the Mesa, Ginger and I talked about that fact, about the need to move on and the challenge of it, about beginnings and endings and how quickly the times seem to go in-between.

In truth, our seniors slowly outgrow Cate as they approach graduation, which is quite appropriate. But it doesn’t always make the leaving any easier and it’s hard to see them go when we are enjoying so much the young adults they have become.

So, in this final Parent communiCATE in the school year’s final month, in deference to all that has transpired not simply this year but in the four years our seniors have been here, what remains to be said is the same thing I told the volleyball team last night, “Thank you for the memories.”

Whether we look back, imagine forward, or simply savor the moments we are in, we have much to be thankful for.

Servons.