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Commencement 2006

LyttleMatthew Lyttle '06, Hobart senior speech

May 14, 2006

President Gearan, Trustees, Faculty, and students.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address the Classes of 2006. 

I’ll be honest, I can’t believe that we’ve been here four years.  FOUR YEARS!  Sometimes it seems like it went by in the blink of an eye.  That is until I sit down and think about all that has happened in our time here. This place has changed and grown almost as much as each one of us has. Therefore, in honor of our final days as students on this campus, I offer you a way to remember the great times we’ve had and the school that we are soon to part from. I give you the official list:

You know you are a member of the Class of ’06 if…

  • You’ve ever played Frisbee in the spot where Stern Hall now stands.
  • You visited professors in Trinity Hall before it was gutted.
  • Before you arrived you were asked if you wanted a smoking or non-smoking dorm room.
  • You remember climbing over a little red shack to skinny dip off of the dock.
  • You remember the Café without a turnstile.
  • You attended the final Fall Fest.
  • You’ve eaten at the Crooked Rooster or the original Ponderosa.
  • You remember the two houses next WEOS that were torn down after our Freshman year.
  • You remember SAGA without Showtime.
  • You remember SAGA with Showtime, but without “Joe-time”.
  • You listened to stories about the glory days of trimesters from the Class of ’03.
  • You remember the network blackouts of 2003, and you’ve asked, “Do you have a copy of the disk, yet?” more than five times in a single evening.
  • You were one of the kids who got the flu during the epidemic of 2003.
  • You’ve ever slept in the library…overnight, that is.
  • You’ve ever had to forward your e-mail to a personal account over a break.
  • You still use your user name in your e-mail.
  • You chose to live in McCormick House because of its remote location.
  • The greatest class you’ve take here was Roman Sports and Society.
  • You remember HWS Day as a “nice idea.”

Yes, this place has changed a lot. Truth be told, it will continue to change, long after we’re gone, but I urge you to hold on to our school, with our memories and our friends. This school, as it stands right now, will always be ours. Tomorrow it will take on a new identity.  As years pass, it will know new buildings and new students. They will have their HWS, and they are more than welcome to it, but I will always have mine, and we will always have each other, and I will always share mine with you.

Class of 2006, congratulations, and good luck!