The end of the school year is a hectic time for just about everyone on campus. As seniors get ready to graduate and move on to a new chapter of their lives, the rest of the students are preparing for standardized tests and term end experiences. Personally, I’ve found that term end experience week is a time when everyone is working hard to finish the term well, but this can also mean that we aren’t spending a lot of time together.
For me, the last week of spring term last year was spent either trying to study in my room or playing soccer on Memorial Field to relieve stress. The seniors had left, and campus felt less lively as the remaining student body prepared for finals.
Come term end experience week, the abrupt change in schedule makes life disorganized. It’s a hectic rush as the year comes to a close. And then, everybody just leaves. While the seniors have Commencement to conclude their time at Choate, for the rest of us, there is no conclusive end to the school year. Instead, the student body just slowly separates over the course of the week, as everyone finishes up with their finals.
Many dorms do have their own events, but they aren’t for the entire school and don’t really conclude the school year. Instead of putting pressure on dorm advisers to organize events, the School should take responsibility and make an effort to avoid this lack of conclusion to the school year.
There should be some sort of school-wide gathering where everyone can celebrate the end of the year together. One easy solution would be to host a final end-of-year SAC dance on the Friday night after term end.
We already have the tradition of having a SAC dance during the opening weekend of the school year, and almost everyone shows up because it has a reputation of being fun. It’s one of few events of the year in which nearly the entire student body voluntarily gets together.
Having a SAC dance at the end of the year would feel right. It would be in line with the current tradition of starting the school year off with one and a great way for everyone to celebrate the school year coming to a close. Unlike Prize Day or Commencement, a dance would be a celebration of the whole school for everyone.
Still, it’s ironic that immediately after the week when the student body is more separate than ever, there is no school-wide gathering to celebrate the end of the year. It’s such a simple change that would completely alter the mood of term end. It would give everyone something to look forward to, and it would bring the campus back together before we separate once again for the summer.
