10 Years Later

By CODY WATERFALL '20

The spirited campus of 170 Center Street, Milton, MA, has been my second home for the past decade, since my incoming year of 2008. I have grown up at Milton—I have learned, also, what it means to grow up. I have begun to learn what I love here. I have found my greatest role models inside the people here; in teachers, friends, and classmates. Although Milton is one of the most special places in the world to me, I have decided to switch schools next year, which also marks the end of the Milton experience for the Class of 2018. And as I leave with them, not to college, but in pursuit of new goals, I would love to leave our diverse community with some words in an effort to improve upon the incredible foundation that each of us helps to create.

At our school, I have felt an unspoken and universal belief among the community that there is no need to support one another; it is not hard to see that this is the result of divide in our community based on groupings of people. My decade at Milton has allowed me to realize that every student is seen as amazing and possessing something special about themselves that gives them a place in the school—those unique characteristics are why we are here. However, tension exists in the absence of support between students; we all work hard together, but, in a massively competitive atmosphere, we are not united. All of the work and time we put into our academics, our sports, our activities, is, of course, our own and no one else's, as is the pride we take in that work, whether that’s because of its quality or due to the time we put into it. But there is a misconception that this individual work, whether personal or school-related, can be done without the guiding support of others. We are Milton students; people see us and blindly believe that we need no help doing well. We are Milton students, and we are not perfect. We need to ask for help if we can’t do it on our own. We need to offer support. If we supported each other in our work, instead of assuming that we can function in an environment of essential isolation, our constant debates over race, economic status, gender, and such would be more positive and constructive. Being supported by someone helps you understand that person. Support is what make the closest communities strong. Our community should be made strong by the fact that we all share a commonality: being here together. The most broad thing we all share is that we have all decided and been given the brilliant opportunity to begin our lives and prepare ourselves to do whatever incredible things we seek to do at Milton Academy. The aspects of ourselves that are different—the dorm or town we live in, whether we drive from the city or walk across the quad to first period—are what we have been taught to focus on, instead of our outstanding unifying traits. We do great things individually, and I have no doubt that everyone who has been touched by Milton has been given the set of tools necessary to achieve their dreams, but the here and now at Milton, where we can begin to positively advance the beautiful community here that we work to build everyday, is the most crucial aspect of our education. Remember that, in the most basic way, the people in the growing community around you share a common experience during life’s most important and formative time. The absence of support is forced deeper by our differences, but we should all see the blue and orange in each other before those differences.