An open letter to the Class of 2018

As a new semester dawns with the beginning of fall 2018 classes on Monday, I’d like to pause and reflect and say goodbye again before we say hello once more. Each year brings with it new challenges for our team and our program. Each year’s team forges a new and distinct personality, and with it the opportunities for unprecedented greatness that inevitably (and hopefully) follows. But as we start each new preseason, semester and academic year, a part of our heart and soul is left behind with the recently graduated class. Oh sure, we feel that acutely on commencement day in May (this year, the mood was literally dampened by the nasty cold rain!), but we feel it in a bit more of a subtle way now, as we forge ahead with great goals and great attitudes. Recent graduates – 2018, 2017, keep ticking down the years – all have left their mark on the program. The class of 2018 was a special one (I know, I say it every year!), and will be missed greatly. The goodbyes continued this weekend, as we bid farewell (not goodbye; see you later) to one of our all-time favorites (aren’t they all?), Sami Ellougani (picture here is from Minnewaska on Saturday morning). Sami is soon off to San Antonio, where he will start his career in computer programming with USAA, as well as pursuing his master’s degree from Georgia Tech. So while the new academic year brings with it the anticipation of what to come, it is tinged with the sadness of those, like Sami, we has funneled out into the real world, where they are tentatively taking their first baby steps in doing great things away from Marist. We feel this way about each graduating class, class of 201x, 200x, 199x, all the way back to when we started. And so, to all them, and to the Class of 2018: we miss you. Class of 2018, we believe in you. Class of 2018, do great things out there in the world, as you did great things here in our little bubble called Marist College.