Welcome Back!

Tuesday marked the opening of the year for the Berwick Academy Upper School. With so much excitement and new faces it is sure to be the start of a good year on the hilltop. Morning assembly opened up the day, lead by Student Life Coordinator Owen Labrie ’11 and Student Body President Ryan Walters ’11. A candy tasting-eating contest followed, with blindfolded representatives from each grade guessing various candy bars that were hand fed to them. For every correct guess they earned a point. The headmaster also stopped by with a warm welcome and director of the Upper School Peter Saliba gave his opening remarks in regards to community goals for the year. He asked us to think of a personal goal for the year and then took a poll to see how many goals were to reach a destination and how many have a goal that is a journey. Here is a brief excerpt of his speech from September 7th, 2010:

“When we set goals for ourselves, they usually are finite, measureable achievements.  Most people think of them as destinations, and examples might include a specific grade or GPA, a college admission, or perhaps winning a specific game.  However, this year, I want people to starting thinking about the journey and not the destination.  How do you get to a destination?

If you ask alums about what they remember the most about BA, it is the human relationships with their peers and teachers, an entire season of athletics, or some sort of arts performance.  The same can be said for the captains of industry (Gates/Buffett), our political leaders (Snowe/Obama), or our headmaster (Schneider).  When asked about their greatest achievement, they describe a journey, not a destination.

My goal this year is to focus on the journey, not the destination.”

So welcome back! Get ready for a fantastic year and start that journey everyone’s been talking about, you don’t know where it might lead.