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Commencement 2006 > Senior Class Speech
Amanda Hoormann '06

This year, every commencement speech will probably begin with the same opening:  On behalf of the Class of 2006, I welcome the faculty, staff, family, and friends who are here in support of our achievement.  In preparing my words, however, I wanted to skirt the usual greeting, and so I started to think….

Barbara’s pizza and Rueben’s daily specials made college what it was. Care packages and lectures from home made college what it was. Long conversations about life during office hours with favorite professors made college what it was. So many important memories tied to so many groups of people that, rather than simply a cliché, the standard greeting began to feel truly inadequate.  I had to begin again, so...

On behalf of the Lake Forest College Class of 2006, I want to welcome and thank our parents, our professors, and the amazing Lake Forest College professional staff.  Thank you, each of you, sincerely and completely. 

We graduates are the reason for the College’s 128th Commencement, but we recognize that we are but one small part of Lake Forest’s history. We spent our four years   thinking of ourselves as one-fourth of the campus community: excited Freshmen, calm and collected Sophomores, cool-kid Juniors (who seemed to know so much), and, finally, finally, Seniors. Now, at this time of graduation, we are beginning to transition into a phase where we see ourselves as one class out of 128. We would not be here today without those other classes and their historical legacy, and we are indebted to those who have gone before us.  We thank the alumni and trustees, and we are honored today to cross this stage and join you as alumni of Lake Forest College.

We recognize that certain aspects of the College have become part of all our histories, the kinds of things that bind us together as Foresters, throughout the generations. For example, we all know that our handball team is one of the very best in the nation and has been for quite some time.  On the other hand, very few people know how to sing the Alma Mater, an interesting bond since most the class of 2006 learned this tune only recently. Moore Hall has supposedly been falling down forever, and, if you’ve lived in this beloved building any time during the last fifty years, you certainly know what I mean. Lake Forest is undeniably one of the most beautiful places on earth during a few gorgeous autumn weeks, but we all know what happens when winter hits.

A few changes did take place over the past four years, however, events that shaped us as the 128th graduating class and set us apart from Foresters past and future. When we arrived on campus in August of 2002, most of us were legally adults.  At the time, of course, we felt old and wise, but, as I am sure many of you noticed upon the arrival of this current year’s “old and wise” freshman class, we were neither.

We spent the next three years exploring majors, adding majors, dropping majors, and, thanks to the wonderful world of the liberal arts, inventing majors. We joined clubs and ran clubs and eventually got burned out by clubs. We played sports, rejoiced in victories and resolved to push all the harder through defeat. We displayed our artistic talents on stage in Hixon Hall, throughout the Sonnenschein Gallery, crammed into Lily Reid Holt Chapel, and during Coffeehouse Open Mic nights.

We went to class, and, well, sometimes we didn’t go to class. But we did stay up ‘til the wee hours of the morning, walking on the beach or sitting on our futons, talking about life, who we were and where we were going.
We questioned our personal prejudices and investigated a new paradigm of diversity. We fell in and out of love.
We partied on South Campus, avoided the Henkels at all cost, and learned the art of tailgating, small-school style.

We saw our new library morph into the campus place-to-be, watched the beautiful new Mohr Student Center grow, and cheered as Farwell field went from pee-wee league stadium to state-of-the-art facility. It was there that the men’s hockey team marched shirtless through football game crowds, and, once the seasons changed, the football team returned the favor by torturing visiting teams at hockey games.

But even after thinking about all of this, I was still left wondering, questioning what it was that made Lake Forest College unlike anything else we as students had previously encountered.  I began to realize that an underlying theme ran through all of these Forester memories, something that made Lake Forest what it is.  It turns out that most important for us were the relationships we formed and the real-life education that took place here, because of and maybe despite these relationships.

I am not so presumptuous as to think I have anything to offer by way of wisdom to my peers.  Any advice I might conjure up would surely be nothing more than the regurgitated thoughts of someone much wiser than I.  That being said, I’ll spare you any cheesy graduation quote and instead offer what I definitely do know.

The most important part of college—of life--is relationships.  Friendships, loves, acquaintances, they each matter.  The people we connect with are the reason life is beautiful.  Even those short friendships that somehow dissipated after freshman year, when we either realized who we were or, more importantly, realized who we were not, they also contributed to the beauty.  It is through knowing others that we begin to know ourselves, and Lake Forest College understands this principle of relationships. It encourages it.  It expects it. 

Our classes are small, and the mission statement of the College assures us that our professors know us by name.  Our residence halls aim to foster a home-like environment, a place more significant than just somewhere to sleep.  For four years, this school has pushed us to find our place in a community.

On the whole, we have not been trained for a profession. Instead, Lake Forest has trained us to think, to write, and to speak as complete people.  We are expected to take what we learned in the classroom and apply it to life.  This doesn’t necessarily make for an easy job search, as I’m sure many of you have realized over the last few months, but how exciting it is to know that we are uniquely qualified for so very much. Lake Forest, in short, has qualified us for life.

We would not be graduating if not for formal time in the classroom.  I realize this, but the essence of Lake Forest College, our liberal arts education, has the ability to pervade every aspect of our lives, if we allow it to do so.  As we continue to live and to think and to communicate holistically, we will continue to grow as individuals. This combination of valuable relationships and holistic education must be held in a fine balance that I hope each of us will continue to sustain for the rest of our lives.  Lake Forest strives to support these two aspects of life and has worked hard to pass on the necessary tools to us. 

I congratulate the Class of 2006 for showing up for class, writing the papers, and getting this fantastic slip of parchment that will be your ticket to graduate school or the armed services or the work force.  But, before the cake is sliced and before the gifts are opened, I ask you to think about your four years here on the North Shore.

There were memories formed here that must not be forgotten, friendships that require tending, and life lessons that will guide you, if you choose to let them.  As you pursue your dreams and go on to live incredibly successful lives, remember where these tools of relationships and education came from.  Remember us, remember today, and always remember that, wherever you are, you are a Forester forever.