by Sid Vattamreddy

At the time I’m writing this, it has been 17 days since the last time we all went to school.

Since then, the rest of the senior class and I have missed out on a senior spring break trip, an in-person Coffeehouse and the beginning of an SPC counter schedule. These big events are what we consider to define our last year at 10600 Preston Rd., but as we spend more and more time away from campus, I’m realizing these huge calendar events aren’t what I’m missing the most.

I find myself missing all the little things that happen regularly as I go to school. In fact, I’m missing the things I’d never thought I’d miss.

I miss the tedious task of shaving every Sunday and Wednesday night. I miss complaining about going to class at the end of my free periods. I miss shivering uncontrollably as I enter the frigid Chapel every mid-week 10:30 period.

These are all daily and weekly events that I never used to look forward to. I protested doing them, took them for granted. But as all of us miss out on athletic events, campouts and musical concerts and as more time passes between the current day and the last day I put on my blue shirt and gray shorts, I’m understanding that it’s these little things that have made my eight years at St. Mark’s so incredibly special.

So when we do eventually go back to campus, I’m going to appreciate each little occurrence so much more. I will make an effort to pridefully shave on Sundays and Wednesdays, joyfully complain at the end of every free period and cheerfully shiver during each chapel.

Seniors, I know it’s easy to look at the rest of the year and worry about all of the huge events we have looked forward to experiencing as seniors – the Senior Prank, Senior Skip Day, the trip with the first-graders to the zoo, Baccalaureate and of course, Commencement – but I hope we can realize that these events aren’t the only things that make our senior year exceptional. Rather, it will be how we handle this time away from school and how we come together as a class, as a school and as a community that will define our last year at 10600 Preston Rd.

I encourage each of you all to join me and appreciate the things we never appreciated before. Take in and acknowledge the value of every Spanish class pruebita, every math class POD, every sports practice suicide run, because they mean so much more to us than we will ever realize. That’s what this time away from school has taught me – that nothing should be taken for granted and that it’s the little things that have the biggest impacts on us.