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哈利V. 感谢家人和老师
You often hear people say that the journey is more 重要的 than the destination, that if you look towards where you’ll end up, you might miss the 重要的 things 发生在你身边. 这是真的，旅程是 重要的. So I did a little math, and this is how far we’ve 来. If we are in school for 8 hours a day, for 170 days a year, then by eighth grade, the total amount of time a kid who has been at McDonogh since kindergarten has spent in school would be twelve thousand two hundred forty hours. Twelve thousand two hundred forty hours. 在这段时间里 we could have traveled to the moon 163 times.
What have we achieved during this huge period of time? We 学会了成长. How do our hours change from year to 年，地，地? In kindergarten, we spent our hours coloring, or sitting in a circle, ready to listen to a teacher read to us, or playing together on the playground. Those tricycles would never go quite fast enough.
当 we made the short hop from Dudley Hall, along the path to Elderkin, the content of our time changed. 而不是 of pedalling like lunatics through a parking lot, we played 篮球，标签，四方. 有多少人不再玩了 Foursquare走出困境? 我们做了多少小时 spend listening to “I was king and then he cheated and I 迷失》?
Our classes got longer, we started taking field trips, school became more focused, but only just a little bit. 夫人. Lidston would always do something crazy for the reading challenge we completed over the summer. 女人录了录音 herself to a wall, dressed up like a cow and hooked herself to cables to “jump over the moon” in the Horn 剧院, and even got a fire truck to use as a sprinkler behind Finney 建筑.
After the fun of lower school, we graduated. 完成 the long trek from Elderkin Hall across the bus lot, past the senior quad, and past Allan 建筑 to Finney and Lyle, 我们觉得时代又变了. 我们花了无数个小时 社交活动. Every day we stood in the hallway talking and 听和看. We spent time in advisory, sitting 在课堂上, sitting 在课堂上, sitting 在课堂上, OH and sitting 在课堂上! Hours of our lives were wasted by spending time 把我们的衬衫掖好. 我们在课堂上努力过，通过了， 失败了，勉强过关.
By the end of Middle school, you start to hear a lot of “嗯,不管”. It’s time to go, time to start racking up those hours of summer time spent at the beach or at camp or, 最好的是睡觉. 但是当我们到达终点的时候 summer slumber, there will be a puzzling test waiting for us 在高中. 当 we take our next step in our career, we must walk back past the senior quad to reach Allan 建筑, all the while looking in the direction of the lower school just across the way. 随着我们的前进，我们 想要回头看吗.
Through the years, we 学会了成长. 在较低的 School, emphasis was put on being together. 这很有帮助 to create a strong bond among all of us. 每个疯狂的，愚蠢的， and even annoying activity we ever did in lower school was 是为了让我们走到一起. 夫人. 利斯顿知道该怎么做 things like getting a fire truck and hose to play with and organizing activities like play day would bring us closer. The 4th grade teachers knew how to get us to work together when they had us solve puzzles as a group once a week.
The 6th and 7th grade teachers knew how to get us engaged and to be with one 另一个 when we had the Mclympics and campout, each of which forced us to be a team, to 参与，并在一起. 八年级老师 challenged us to balance our personal lives and our school 生活在海湾之旅期间. 我们可以一边学习一边学习 relating to one 另一个 on a personal level. 每次我们 crabbed together on a boat, or dredged the bottom for oysters, or slipped and slid through the mud, we were bonding and learning at the same time.
The activities given to us by our teachers over the years have helped spur our growth in understanding of one 另一个. For the most part, everyone in our grade can relate to one 另一个. If I could understand Gerunds and Participles and Clauses as well as I understand my friends, I would be the 最幸运的孩子. 我们花了那么多时间 together, how could we not understand each other? 在某种程度上， our class has be来 a single unit. 这并不是说我们 没有不同的. Each one of us remains an individual. However, when we can 来 together we can do anything we 想要. All the effort our teachers have invested in us over the years has resulted in a bunch of kids who work even better in a group than by themselves.
I am personally proud of our grade, because, when things 打起精神来，我们正处于最佳状态. 这是不可能的 他谈到了每一个社区. 你证明了我们会的 always be ready to stand firm in the toughest times. 当 tragedy struck our community last year, we supported each other, we mourned together, and we helped our Class of 2016 family to heal and get back on its feet. 我们的增长 carried us to to where we are 现在, and we owe that to the 我们过去和现在的老师. 我们还有多少小时 spent thanking everyone who helped us reach where we are 现在? I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say the Class of 2016 thanks you, our teachers and families, for all of your 帮助我们成长. No matter much time we spend on thanking 你，永远都不够.