Celebrating Our Seniors and Embracing New Beginnings
Dear Hill-Murray Community,
Our seniors’ last day of class is this Thursday, and they will be walking down the aisle of the Cathedral a week later to receive their diplomas. Graduation and Mass at the Cathedral is one of the most beautiful traditions at Hill-Murray. It is a celebration of the journey, a hopeful sign of what is to come and a wonderful way to recognize and honor both graduates and their parents in the context of our faith.
I have had many opportunities over the last couple weeks to connect with seniors and talk to them about their specific plans for next year. I am truly inspired by their hopes and dreams and their excitement about their next chapter. Our alumni often come back and tell us that Hill-Murray prepared them well for post-secondary study and other life opportunities. Hill-Murray intentionally, and with fidelity, prepares students to be ethical leaders who make the world a better place.
One of my favorite poems has always been Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Our graduates will embark on many paths in the coming weeks, months, and years. I hope their time at Hill-Murray has instilled in them the knowledge of how deeply they are loved, how to use their God-given strengths to make a positive difference, and inspires them to take the road less traveled. It’s the only way to be a true Pioneer…
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Sincerely,
Melissa Dan