Joan Didion’s seminal essay, “Goodbye to All That,” begins with the following sentence: It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.

Later, at the end of that first paragraph, she writes that one of the “mixed blessings” of being young “is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened to anyone before.” There is some truth to that statement when I consider the work of the 12th grade students who have written for The Python Post this year. They have been the first to do so, and so it is perhaps true that nothing like this has happened to anyone before, and that they have set the stage and laid the groundwork for those who will come later.

This year, student journalists for The Python Post have written with courage, vulnerability, joy, humor, power, and grace. They have told the stories of members of our community (Alder! Elle! Golden! Johnson! Mao!), and they have amplified their own opinions and the opinions of others. They have pointed out moments of complexity, have celebrated their own identity, have sounded the alarm about resonant issues at this school and in the world, have been cheerleaders for their peers, have made impassioned pleas about deeply important topics, have educated us about our local community, and have shared stories about those they love the most. They have written about parents and friends, teachers and students, people and places that matter.

In doing so, these students have echoed Didion’s idea about beginnings and endings. At the start of this year, I saw an excitable, opinionated, empowered group of senior students. It was easy to see the beginning, wasn’t it? The fire; the joy; the creativity. But the ending? The powerful pieces, the vulnerable opinions, the beautiful tributes? I found myself — and maybe you did, too — so wildly and consistently surprised in the best possible ways. In her own version of Didion’s essay, the writer Eula Biss says “I came to New York very young, and I left still young but not the same.” I may not be that young anymore, but in reading the work of these writers this year, I am reminded of how much we are still able to change, to feel moved, and to grow. I leave this year no longer the same as I began.

And so, to you — the readers. I hope you have enjoyed this year as much as I have. I hope you have been moved as much as I have. Inspired, too. Challenged, surely. And I hope it has happened again and again. When you see these writers, I hope, too, that you will thank them for their courage to share some part of who they are, and some part of what they see of the world. It takes a lot of courage. I believe that. I hope you believe that, too.

As a kind of parting gift, many of our writers have written their own “Goodbye to All That” pieces, reflecting on their time as seniors this year and even, too, on their whole lives. These are their last pieces as writers for The Python Post, but I highly doubt that they will be the last pieces that they write.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Kelly