Well here we are. After…
720 days
288 chapels
36 assemblies
720 school lunches (540 of those with salt)
85 soccer games
8 plays and musicals
4 Soccer Sectionals
2 Soccer Regionals
1 Tennis Sectional
7 Holiday Tourney wins
First Kisses
Awkward breakups
Inside jokes
Over 72 hours spent on break
432 Hours of passing period
All the highs
All the lows
…We’ve reached the end.
Here I am, trying to write this review, this sendoff for all of you, having only experienced eighteen months of a journey many of you have shared for seven years. Who am I to try and put into words the sense of excitement, of accomplishment, and the real sense of loss felt as we draw this era in our lives to a close?
Let’s start with some of the last year’s accomplishments. Guys’ soccer retained the sectional title for a third year running and captured a second regional. A strong state run was ended by a formidable Canterbury team who gave up only three goals during their campaign, two of those to Bethany. Finishing with a record of 17-5, the class of 2013 graduates as the winningest class in Bethany soccer history, with six seniors planning to continue playing at the college level. The boys’ basketball team also helped long-serving coach Jim Buller reach the 365th win of his career, breaking a county record that had stood since 1948.
While its success has been slightly more under the radar, 2013 was also a record-breaking year for the Bethany theater program, helmed by director Talashia Keim-Yoder. Aside from staging two successful and well-received productions, the program also picked up its second consecutive national theater award nomination. This prestigious award requires multiple nominations from university theater professors, members of the awards festival, or past winners. Bethany picked up 5 nominations this year, which is almost unheard of.
So there it is. There is the mark I and my classmates will leave on this school. So what, in the end, will I remember? I will remember that balmy November night when Femi broke away from two Andrean defenders to score, it has to be said, against the run of play in the regional final. I’ll also remember the collective agony of the crowd in that same game as we watched Andrean’s goal dribble into the net, only to roar with relief and delight as we saw the Lino’s flag raised on the far side, meaning the goal would not stand. I’ll remember sitting backstage during To Kill a Mockingbird, holding back tears listening to Elijah Lora (‘16) sing “I am a poor wayfaring stranger.” I’ll remember standing with six other guys in the boys’ bathroom, rubbing blue paint all over each other’s exposed torsos. I’ll remember long, late nights, laughing at bad movies, talking about everything and nothing. More than anything though; more than any shared glory or personal triumph, I’ll remember the friends.
Coming in at such a late stage, I think I have a unique perspective on what makes Bethany so special. We roll our eyes at the word “community” having heard it so often, but take for granted what having a true student community means. A true community rallies around a classmate who has suffered tragedy. It supports one another, travelling to concerts, games, and recitals when they could be doing other things. It has people who, no matter what their differences, would bend over backwards to help each other out. This unified sense of community and common purpose just doesn’t exist at others schools. Believe me, I know first hand. Where at other schools you are little more than an anonymous face in a sea of strangers, here we are given the chance to really build something.
As I come now to a close, I’d like to leave you with the words of an old Irish folk tune. It’s a reflection on the sad but beautiful nobility of goodbyes, told from the lips of an old bar rat as he prepares to leave his friends behind.
Of all the comrades that e’er I had
They’re sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e’er I had
They’d wish me one more day to stay
But since it fell into my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I’ll gently rise and softly call
“Goodnight and joy be to you all”
~Joe Kreider