There is no question that the senior year of high school is a celebration. Years of hard work and perseverance have led to soon-to-be graduates closing their time in secondary school. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the individuals who helped the students arrive well-equipped for their victory lap. This week, MICDS celebrated the Class of 2024 parents, taking time to pause at the start of a year where special events will start coming one after the next.
The informal evening with delicious food and drink allowed the Class of 2024 parents to hear from Head of School Jay Rainey and one of their own, in addition to connecting and reconnecting with each other. The Hermann Courtyard was filled with lively conversation, reminiscing, and laughter, a perfect way to start a milestone year in their journey at MICDS.
The Courtyard was filled with photos that sparked memories from JK and SK through seventh grade all the way up to their official senior class group photo taken just days ago.
Rainey welcomed the guests and shared the essential importance of listening, especially as we live in a time of deafening noise, distraction, and interruption. He noted the archival photos on display of the Class of 2024 and shared, “They had big dreams then. I had lunch with this year’s group today, and they still have big dreams and plans. But especially this year, the senior year, your children are dreaming.”
He also empathized with the emotional and joyful roller coaster that is the senior year of high school and shared a poem, Tuition Costs by Victor Depta, about the bittersweet journey of tending to the growth and release of our children into the world, much like tending a garden. The partnership with parents is crucial as our faculty and staff guide these students through college applications, big decisions, and the fun that comes with being a senior, from the Homecoming bonfire to the senior boat races. He then introduced Lisa Guirl, a parent of a Class of 2024 senior and two alumni.
Guirl is a Senior Parent Gift Committee member and delivered touching remarks reflecting on her youngest child’s final year at MICDS. She shared an amusing story of coming home one day to an Amazon package of 2,000 ping pong balls that were eventually strung together by her MICDS student with a needle and fishing line for an art project. Later, when her daughter graduated from MICDS and pursued interior design and architecture, that design became an award-winning lighting fixture. She noted how, while parents may not see it now, MICDS graduates often take inspiration, lessons, and perseverance that they learned here on to the next stages of their lives. She spoke briefly about the long-standing tradition of senior family support for the MICDS Fund and encouraged her fellow Class of 2024 parents to achieve 100% participation this year. She reminded parents that “as the individual and collective stories for our seniors are being composed, pay close attention—what will their ping pong ball be?”
Here’s to a year of wonderful memories that will last a lifetime for the Class of 2024 families!