Reflections from Serena Doumit ’27 at Eighth Grade Celebration

Serena Doumit ’27 shared the following remarks with classmates, friends, and families at the Eighth Grade Celebration in May 2023.

Hello, my name is Serena Doumit. Congratulations to everyone graduating today. We all have many people to thank for getting us here, and I especially want to thank my friends.

As many of you may already know, I came to MICDS in seventh grade. I remember being so nervous that I wouldn’t make any friends, but the minute I walked into my advisory on the first day of school, I was greeted by two girls who are now some of my closest friends. Their kindness and support on the first day of school made me feel included in an unfamiliar environment. And even today, when I have made many friends, they continue to make me feel included and important wherever we are. The kindness they have given me has taught me that friendship is a valuable thing that is like a two-way street. We have to show support to our friends, and they have to reciprocate it. I know my experience is similar to other people in our class, but the lessons I learned from my friends are unlike anyone else’s. My friends taught me to trust people and to have empathy. But I think the most important lesson they taught me was to support one another.

One reason I love the Class of 2027 so much is because everyone gives each other so much support, especially our teachers. All of my teachers have helped me reach my goals. They have all made me feel comfortable asking for help and taught me that it is okay to make mistakes sometimes. I don’t think I would have survived this year if it weren’t for Flex, so I’m very thankful to all of the teachers who have always had their doors open for me and are willing to answer my questions.

As much as my teachers have helped me achieve my goals this year, my friends have also made a huge impact on my education. One of the main reasons I am able to come to school every day is because of my friends. They have always shown me an exceedingly large amount of support even when I don’t deserve it. Everyone is so supportive of each other all the time, especially during school sports. Every school volleyball season, we do team bonding in an escape room. The goal was to teach us to communicate and collaborate with each other. We reached that objective, but I also learned something else from the escape room: it taught me to be patient with others and learn from my mistakes. Working as a team during the escape room helped me create a tighter bond with all of my teammates because we had to have clear communication and we had to support each other.

The friendships I share with people at MICDS have positively impacted my life. My friends have supported me through everything, and I know I can count on them to help me with anything. They have helped me grow as a person because I learned that the more time you put into making a friendship work, the better it ends up being. I have made so many amazing memories with my class in the past two years, and I’m very excited to see how we can all grow and become even better friends throughout our time in Upper School.

I’m so excited to spend the next four years with the best class ever–the Class of 2027!