Connection

This past Spring represented a big reunion year for me, a number that seems too big to believe, but also doesn’t seem that long ago. I went to a school with many similarities to Brimmer- a PK-12 school, my graduating class was 48 students, teachers and students had strong relationships, and we were connected to people throughout the entire school. During the lead up to the reunion, I had a chance to reconnect with old friends and chat with people that I knew well but had not seen since graduation.

 

It got me thinking about the word “connection”. How connections are formed and what allows them to last the test of time? How there were people that I was incredibly close with in high school that it felt like no time had passed when we began speaking again, some whom I realized we had more in common now as adults than as students, and others that the connection was broken and couldn’t be resewn. 

 

Connection. How relationships form is the foundation of the connections we are here to celebrate at the Ring Ceremony. From these connections are born different types of friendships.

 

Some people like Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Ross, Joey, and Phoebe just click when they get into a room together. There is an instant connection, but those moments are not the most common.

 

Other friendships may be between two people that at first did not make a lot of sense, people coming with what seems like little to no overlapping common interests, like Lightning McQueen and Mater, yet over time grew into a great friendship.

 

Like the Guardians of the Galaxy, sometimes people start not liking each other, but over time grow to understand and appreciate each other’s uniqueness.

 

Then there are those friendships that may start as rivalries, competing for the attention of another person, like Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

 

Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller were the most unlikely of friends in Gilmore Girls, but their shared experiences in classes led them to grow a relationship through their appreciation of each other in class.

 

Other friendships come out of shared intense experiences, often in sports or in music/theater. Some hit it off right away like Taylor & Ed and Brady & Gronk, and some learned to appreciate each other like Shaq and Kobe.

 

And sometimes, siblings end up being the closest of friends.

 

The truth is, there are countless types of connections between the 11th and 12th grades. Some are deep friendships that started in lower school and others come from shared experiences in class, on stage, playing a sport, or in a shared club. Each has meaning and represents how shared experiences can bring us closer together.

 

Who knows how these relationships will look in 25 years, but for now, we focus on the present and enjoy the way that 11th and 12th grades bring meaning and joy to each other.