It’s almost the end of the 2022-2023 school year, and the seniors are ready to say goodbye to Williston and arrive at their next destinations.

Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 27 this year to acknowledge all the hard work seniors put in since day one and reward them with diplomas to mark the close of their high school academic journey. Student President William Chalfant, and guest speaker S.A. Fogelman will address the audience at the 9:30 AM event this year.

Seniors had their last Res Life Dinner ever two weeks ago, followed by Prom and Lock-in on May 21, where students spent their night in the gym with plenty of food and games for them to have fun. The following week is Seniors Week and there are a lot of activities for 12th graders. Before Commencement, the school will celebrate student achievement at the Academic Awards Ceremony on May 26 at 1:45 under the tent.

After the stress of AP exams and college applications, the students can finally take a break and enjoy their last few weeks at school.

Most of the Wildcats use the word “bittersweet” to describe their remaining time in Williston.

“I am super excited for the next part of my life but I am very sad about leaving all my friends and not being at Williston anymore,” said Carly Goodman, a senior who choose San Diego State University as her next home. “Since I have been here for 4 years, it has become such a big part of my life and it is going to be very hard to let that go.”

However, Noah Kooistra, a postgraduate, feels “strange” about the prospect of leaving.

“When I graduated from my old school [The Pennington School in Pennington, N.J.] I was sad to leave my friends, but I was ready to leave the school because I’d been there for four years,” he said. “Here, however, I feel like I haven’t been able to do everything there is to offer and I wish I had more time to explore. It’s also not very fun leaving people I’ve only been able to get to know for a year, and I wish I were able to be among them for longer.” Noah will attend Dickinson College to play Division I soccer next year.

Williston is not merely a school, but rather the fertile soil that helps students to grow and mature after year by year. Every one of the students experienced and learned various lessons during their Williston time.

“One thing that Williston taught me that I will remember forever is the time you spend with people is what you make of it,” said Hira Asghar, who will be a freshman at Temple University next year. “You can have a really positive time or a really negative time, but it’s up to you to determine how you choose to spend that time and make it your own.”

Going to university is always a benchmark that reminds students that they are now adults, and since they can do whatever they want, they will have to make good decisions to make sure their lives will bloom instead of deadlock.

Senior Tu Thieu, who will attend Brandeis next year, is excited to live her own life without any restraints.

“The freedom and the time to do whatever I want whenever I want,” she explained as her most awaited thing in university. “I am excited for the opportunity to explore new things in my life.”

Juniors who have a senior as their roommate will soon dominate the whole room but not sure if this is the best thing or not. Junior Hayden Hedstrom who is “scared” to become a senior next year, feels “surreal” about the seniors leaving.

“Our nightly conversations are my favorite memories,” said Hayden, who shares a room with senior Kaitlyn Williams. “We always have a good laugh about whatever happened in our day and it is nice to have someone to share it with.”

One of the core members in the Williston office is Jenna Motyka, Coordinator of Student Services, who regrets that she will never see some of the students again.

“I so enjoy celebrating this ending with seniors,” she said. “But with students from all over the globe, I am sad that I may never see some of them again.”

The post-commencement “goodbye” line on the quad is Motyka’s favorite tradition. She “guarantees there will be tears.”