The following is a list of each senior’s favorite quote from their chapel, collected with an optional survey sent to the class of 2023 from the Centipede.
“Because how could someone have made a mistake when they made me a whole bike?!”
–Aisha Aina Tasso
“An 18 year story is finishing its last pages here, at least for now. As much as I know I will miss these days, I know that I am also ready to move on. They have been both a gift and a trial but as each day passes I feel more affirmed in my gratitude for all that it was.”
–Annie McGarry
“You are not alone, since people you love are still there with you, linked by the things you both cherish. Hopefully that will make you feel better, at least for that moment.”
–Cecilia Wang
“Do what makes you happy and what makes you smile, even if that means being a social experiment. We live on a floating rock.”
–Charlie Badger
“Take many shortcuts, and you are bound to get cut short.”
–Christian Omar Setalsingh-Nazaire
“Sometimes, if someone isn’t respecting you or your space, you don’t owe them comfortability.”
–Claire Carson
“Most of my best memories come from laughing hard with my friends so surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Make sure these people can always count on you and vice versa.”
–Conor Kennealy
“The more I hear, the more that the illusion of ‘academic Marxism’ falls away and becomes the torn-open apartment block that our muscles remember fleeing. My mind now knows this truth and this fear; my body knows it. I realize I’m lucky to hear it, at all. And now that I get to hear it, no matter how horrific, there’s a scary part of me that feels set free by it.”
–Cozette Yudi Weng
“Hey B*****s.”
–Dex Plunkett
“Enjoy everything you can, but do not blame yourself when you don't. Feel in a way that feels right to you, you are.”
–Diana Daher
“I still sometimes feel like that shy little boy who refused to go through that rainbow fourteen years ago. I guess I'm still that same person, but instead now I'm a six-foot-tall dude who can grow a beard. However, as time goes on I've begun to learn more about myself, and there have been several formative experiences that have shaped who I am today. At the age of fourteen, I went to my first nightclub.”
–Diego Alonzo
“If you’re gonna shout racist insults -and I say this all the time, you can quote me on that- do it for the love of the game. Be racist because it’s what’s in your heart.”
–Frank Montenegro
“Being enough is a silly construct. We all exist in abundance—you are so much more than good enough.”
–Gabriel Wyatt Fernandes
“I find that I often enjoy the care-free aspect in being told what to do. Coasting along can be very relaxing and the less I have to worry about, the easier it is to just have fun. Unfortunately, as I am stuck in the present, I’ll just have to keep going on. Though I would love to fight against it, time keeps pushing forward as it carries me towards the next phase of my life.”
–Hugo Marquis
“As a Roman Catholic myself, I believe that we overly attach our religious values to ourselves, but instead of thinking of religion as a restriction to our actions, that is, internalizing the idea that we’re not God, we turn out to be complete hypocrites. We see religion as a means of infinite forgiveness, where although it’s okay to make mistakes, we take bad actions, aware of their consequences, by taking advantage of this premise that we can always be forgiven.”
–João Henrique Guimarães Martins
“There are three things I am exceptional at. First, I am exceptionally funny. Second, I am exceptionally humble. And lastly, I am exceptionally, acutely, extraordinarily self aware.”
–John Oh
“I first touched raw deer liver in the sixth grade at my friend’s locker.”
–Juliet Sinkus
“Live entirely in the moment and figure the rest out later.”
–Kaden Nicholas Natale-Schmitt
“Embrace your vulnerability through empathy and be grateful to have the opportunity to grow. Fear is not unique to any one of us, but the ability to overcome it in the darkest of places is.”
–Kelyn Kiecza
“Don’t sweat the small stuff, and you can only be happy if you are authentically yourself.”
–Liam McMichael O’Brien
“As Jeff Desjarlais introduced all the student speakers during my 8th grade tour of CA, and they started to talk about ‘love of learning’ and ‘common trust,’ I began to feel more comfortable in the space. I started to imagine myself coming to this very strange school and was more motivated than ever to apply—which is why it makes perfect sense that I completely ditched that idea and this school to go to public high school for the next two years.”
–Liam Salerno
“Four-leaf clovers might be rare, but three-leaf clovers, although more frequently found in abundance, are just as miraculously alive. I want to love like three-leaf clovers and smile like blades of grass, meaningfully and in abundance. I’ll say it every time it pops into my head, ‘I love you’ where each word is a pretty little heart shaped leaf. And this is how I will add a little sunshine to the world.”
–Lucy Baker
“To me, art is beyond a visual expression of beauty. It is a manifestation of my consciousness.”
–Lucy Wang
“To my friends who listen through it all, and to the people who do even if we aren’t friends, To the secret snowflakes of the world, the door holders, the huggers, the people who give others their last piece of gum, or buy others coffee without being asked, the avocado pit keepers, and those who delay their schedules for others, give out hair ties, and laugh at strangers, to the package bringers, those who get others water, and the candy grams of the world, to the people who root for others - I love you!”
–Luna Cabrera
“Prioritize your own wellbeing, because we must not conduct our lives for the benefit of others; merely for ourselves.”
–Madison McCaslin
“But I know I will remember the things worth remembering. Now, looking forward, I am trying to experience the good things fully without wondering if I might not take full advantage of them or remember them enough. Senior advice: don’t spend your life looking backwards or forwards. It’s okay to dwell on memories and anticipate what is to come, but don’t let it consume you.”
–Maia Monahan
“It is now up to the public to do something, whether it is to act or to educate others, and I refuse to be silent. Not only does it affect me, it also affects other youth in much more delicate situations; they cannot hide behind curtains any longer.”
–Mars Bitout
“Everyone has the potential to be good and you don’t even have to do anything crazy to accomplish this. Hold the door for someone even if they’re at an awkward distance, thank someone for doing something, or just listen to what someone has to say and you can make someone’s day better.”
–Matilda King Chartener
“Слава Україні, слава нації, і піздец російській федерації!”
–Nathan Rothschild
“Pay attention to what you pay attention to.”
–Peter Elliot Krissoff Boehm
“Every day at CA is filled with these metaphorical pennies. Perfectly ripe avocados from the Stufac, the geese that like to sit on lower fields, and watching students contort their bodies to avoid stepping on the seal in the MSL. As you move through the rest of your day, week, and year, try to appreciate the underappreciated aspects of this school. If you are excited by a penny, imagine what you’ll feel like when you find a dollar.”
–Phoebe Fritz
“Don’t ever let anyone label you as less than. Don’t ever let someone else’s definition of beauty dominate yours. You have all the power.”
–Selayni Toribio
“Your senior year of high school is kinda the wackiest time for being scared of growing up because you realize you aren’t as inhuman as you thought you were.”
–Sheilyn Salcedo
“So when I wrote this and realized that my cadence would never be completely right, and that my words, as intricate and delicate as I mean them to be, may not resonate exactly how I intend them to, something fell into place within me—a gestalt shift of sorts, finally ridding me of my need for perfection.”
–Sophie Dornstein
“Maybe it was the weightlessness I felt as I was tossed beneath the force of the ocean or the exhilaration as I strived to rise each time but regardless of how disheveled I looked after, I continued to dive in. Looking back upon these past four years, moving between Guam, Concord, Greenville, and DC - settling down into a relaxing routine has clearly never appealed to me, diving into the unknown whether the next wave or a new city has been my forte. Senior advice: Be spontaneous, seek change, and always rise up to meet the next wave.”
–Thomas Ysrael
“I don’t think anyone finds the solution to all of their problems, or flaws. You just find ways to make them smaller, or more manageable.”
–Will Turner
“It’s not what happens to us that matters. It’s how we react, that matters.”
–William Alexander Gladstone
“You are the only person's head you get the privilege of being in. Please do your best to get to know that person really, really well, better than you know anyone else.”
–Zana Bajraktari Schwab