Hi everyone, wherever you are in the world, it’s Jasmine and Priya coming to you not live from the Barb in the middle of conference season! It’s so exciting to be done but it’s also bittersweet to be ending this chapter of our lives. This isn’t exactly the commencement we imagined or the senior year we envisioned but despite the circumstances, this is still our moment and we should be proud of all we’ve accomplished here. Normally, we would try to reminisce on the last four years, but skipping over the last year and a half for obvious reasons felt right; let’s rewind to our first year when we lost power for an entire weekend because of the hail storm, or when the tree fell down on Mead Way, or, most importantly, the car driving into Perkins. We’re just kidding, we promise we remember all of the good things, too: getting milkshakes at the Black Squirrel, the swings, coming out of a Blue Room party for fresh air, and spending all our meal money at Hill to Go. May all those things rest in peace.
How can we describe senior year during a pandemic? Frustrating, confusing, living in constant fear that you’ve been unmuted the whole time, those are all things that come to mind but so was realizing how strong your friendships are because they survived a year of long distance, how committed the Sarah Lawrence community is to hosting our big events and traditions even on a virtual platform, and the convenience of doing Zoom class while still in bed. Only Sarah Lawrence students would be so interested in their seminar classes that our Zoom cameras always stay on. And that’s what we'll look back on and really appreciate about an SLC education: the passion for and excitement about learning that we can see in our classmates and professors even through a Zoom screen. Now more than ever, the future is a scary and uncertain place, but we take comfort in knowing that we won’t be going into the world alone because of the friends, mentors, and connections we’ve made here. If we can pull together a twenty-page conference paper in two days, there’s nothing we can’t do.
In April, we hosted a wedding for myself and Priya that the rest of the senior class attended, which might sound like an abuse of power, but was really a testament to the fact that no matter how weird or silly something is, there will always be a Sarah Lawrence student who is ready and excited to show up. Say what you will about SLC students but we have definitely one of the most unique student bodies in the world who are guaranteed to shake things up wherever they go.
And you can see that in the history of Sarah Lawrence itself in the occupations of Westlands that students organized in 1969, 1989, and, most recently, in 2019, the largest protest in SLC history. Students were working towards making Sarah Lawrence the institution that they envisioned it could be, a place of community and learning with a commitment to anti-racism, and we are still working towards that goal today. As your class presidents, we believe that Sarah Lawrence can get there if they listen to the needs of their student body, and understand that all the actions we take are with love and hope for what the school could be in the future. Only a passion for Sarah Lawrence would keep us attending senate meetings for three years and bending over backwards to get people to attend our Zoom events.
This might sound surprising given the circumstances, but this year more than ever we were able to meet new friends and foster connections that felt essential during this time of heavy isolation. Thank you to our friends, who knew exactly what we were going through this year; thank you to our professors who found a way to cater to our needs in a completely new learning environment; thank you to all the families who supported us emotionally, mentally, and, most importantly, financially. I’ve grown so much in my time here and I know my parents will agree that the person they dropped off on move-in day four years ago is not the same person standing here today; although I will need them to take me home later because I still can’t drive. Despite the panic we will forever feel when asked what we majored in, I am so grateful to have had this experience and we're so honored to have been your presidents for the class of 2021. And if there is one thing this year has taught us is that it's possible to stay in touch when we’re all over the world. [Don’t cry because it happened, smile because it’s over. WE DID IT !!!]
Remarks as prepared for delivery