On Friday, March 14, Germantown Academy continued its annual tradition of the Student Voices Assembly, granting Blake Smith ’22, Jack Galloway ’22, Patrick Tronoski ’22, Sangeetha Bhuyan ’22, and Alex Goodridge ’22 the opportunity to share their stories of resilience and how the GA community can learn from their experiences.
Some highlights from the event include Alex Goodridge, who discussed how her experiences in high school might relate to others. Goodridge hoped “to tell everyone a little about [herself] while also connecting with people” because she knows that “perfectionism and anxiety are often very common things a lot of students struggle with.” Goodridge went on to describe her purpose for inspiring others when she graciously commented, “I thought sharing my experiences and the lessons I’ve learned through my life would help others look for the times they’ve learned from difficult experiences themselves since a lot of us tend to focus on the negatives.” When asked if she was nervous about sharing her story, Goodridge stated, “I was very nervous and hesitant about both writing and giving the speech. I didn’t really think I had any story to tell or any knowledge to share, but I’m really glad I faced my fear of public speaking and I hope I was able to connect with at least a few people.” It was clear that her story had a meaningful impact on the audience as evidenced by the resounding warm applause of appreciation after she concluded her speech.
As many students can attest, the year seemed to go by quickly, but for seniors, this speech enables them to share an interesting story about lessons they learned from their high school experience while others gain insight that could be helpful for their own experience. Goodridge confirmed that seniors’ speeches not only give others a glimpse into someone else’s experience, but they give time for students to reflect on lessons they have learned along their personal journey. Goodridge stated, “I’m really grateful that I had this amazing opportunity. It taught me a lot about myself, and I hope I was able to connect with people to help them embrace challenges and accept imperfections.”
Sangeetha Bhuyan’s speech detailed how we all go through several hero’s journey cycles as we grow. She understands how “we all face inevitable challenges,” and often they can get overwhelming. But like the hero’s journey cycle in fictional stories, Bhuyan explains how “there’s always a transformation” and we can always “find a way to transform ourselves.” Her “biggest goal” while writing her speech was “to make [her] speech relatable.” She wanted to talk about something that “everyone in the audience has learned,” which led her to the hero’s journey, which most students had learned in English 9. However, this idea took a while to get to. She had five drafts and her “first draft was completely different from what [her] actual speech ended up being.” But she chose to go with talking about heroes’ journey cycles because “there isn’t one thing about anyone’s life that makes their lives significant…It’s not just one challenge that defines you, but there’s just an ongoing cycle of things happening.”
Patrick Tronoski wrote his speech on how he was able to rely on the little enjoyable things to get through the hardships of the pandemic. His main goal was to “share some wisdom about what it means to be resilient or tenacious.” He found this especially important this year, “considering we’ve all experienced so many changes in the past two years.” He wanted to show the younger grades in the GA community how to find joy in hard times. He said, “I focused on what made me happy and what brought me joy, and how they could potentially bring me joy outside the pandemic as well.” Tronoski had several drafts of his speech and “completely switched [his] story,” but he thinks “that’s one of the really important parts of writing about yourself. [You] have to go through many different situations, and normally, the best idea is the one that’s hidden or the one that you forgot about.”
The importance of the Student Voices speeches goes way beyond a writing exercise or story sharing. The tradition provides a way for seniors to leave behind a piece of themselves in each student, guiding and helping others to navigate the challenges they too will face along their journey in high school. These stories are the gifts that leave lasting memories and never-ending treasures of wisdom for each of us to carry forward. Humbly, we all look forward to this important tradition as seniors, continuing to live the GA mission.