Editorial: A Note on Graduation
By Joonyoung Heo, 146th Managing Editor
Every spring, it falls upon the incumbent board of The Exonian to piece together an end-of-year issue for graduation. From our News section we draw highlights from articles published in the last year; from our Life section, full-length features of selected members of the graduating class; from our Opinions section, reflective pieces from those seniors willing to contribute; from our Sports section, features of the year’s varsity athletic teams; and from our Humor section, the funniest material our paper had to offer.
The graduation issue is the pride of every board’s tenure—it is, in a sense, our magnum opus. Admittedly, it is also fairly formulaic. Graduation issues always have the Cum Laude and annual prize list, more than a handful Seniors of the Year, and “senior ads” from families dispersed throughout. These components hardly change from board to board.
But at the same time, we find there is a great deal that makes this graduation issue—and indeed, every graduation issue—rather unique. Take the retiring faculty features. This year we say good-bye to six members members of the Exeter community as they conclude their lengthy professional careers. Mr. Crofoot has been teaching since 1976, making his last year his 48th. And, of course, Mr. and Mrs. Weatherspoon are departing after 37 years of service to the student body. Each of them has devoted decades of passion and hard work in their own way—each of them is deserving many times over of our gratitude.
The same might be said of our Seniors of the Year. Every graduation issue we feature around 20 seniors whose “Exeter experience” we commemorate, and this issue is no different. And while all of them might be made to fit crudely the traditional labels of “scientific” or “athletic” or “humanities-based,” we find it impossible—and certainly an injustice—to distill their time here into a number of molds. Across this campus, people have been made better in such a way that no one else could have done. These seniors leave behind their own brand of change, and they deserve to be celebrated as distinct individuals.
In a similar vein, the entire graduating class of 2024 is worthy of special recognition. They met as preps behind plastic screens and disposable masks, and they’ve done remarkable things nonetheless. If this graduation issue really is in the spirit of celebration, they deserve every bit of it.
Uniqueness in spite of continuity, then, is what we emphasize this year—continuity in another gradution issue, yet uniqueness in how it falls on us to raise a toast to these most singular people and their most singular achivements. Congratulations, class of 2024, departing faculty. We will miss you.
