Valedictorian address

I would like to extend my warm welcome to members of the board and all parents, staff members, and classmates who are here with us today.

I joined Woodstock School two years ago, glad for a new place filled with new faces, where I could quickly be done with high school and move on to college. They say be careful what you wish for. What I quickly realized during my time here was that Woodstock slows down for no one. Within two snaps of my fingers my two years at Woodstock were gone, but not exactly the way I wanted them to. Two out of eighteen years of my life, some would question the significance of what would soon become just another dot in time. To me, however, Woodstock has become much more than a stepping stone, and these two years have become the most precious and memorable years of my life. Therefore I leave this place now, not relieved and unmoved as I expected myself to be, but sad and grateful, the way one would leave an old friend. The Woodstock community has provided me, as it has surely provided my 75 classmates, with countless opportunities to learn and to grow as a person. Because most of us are far away from home, we have become family to one other. Here, teachers do not teach just what's in the curriculum, they teach you lessons that last a lifetime (be it Ms. Chander's constant lectures on how to become sensible young adults, Mr. Plonka's demonstration of the importance of standing up for your personal beliefs, or Mr. Husthwaite's lessons on living and loving). Moreover, friends do not only sit with you at lunch and wait for you at the lockers, they're always there for you even if it means staying up late into the night, and when you're bedridden they sneak into the Health Center just to make sure you're okay and to give you your favorite sweatshirt. Dorm parents - well, Miss Pauline, at least - do not just put your lights out at half past eleven and give you announcements during check-in, their disappointment and expectations often guilt-trip you into becoming better people when you've stepped out of line, and sometimes they sit for hours in your room listening to your problems when you're having a bad day.

There is also a lesson to be learned in the ever-changing seasons here in the hills. They teach you that nothing is constant and that change cannot be avoided, yet more importantly that by keeping a close watch and an open mind, you can always find that one safe place, where not even the hottest of summer heats can daze, nor the worst of monsoon rains and winter snowstorms can penetrate. Once you find this place, you can call it home, and no matter how far off you drift, it will always be. I can safely say that I have found this place at Woodstock, and as I bid farewell to all those who have in one way or the other made an impact on my life, I am certain that the things I have learned, the friendships I have built, and the memories we have all shared would always remain with me.

Indira Laothamatas