Class of 2022 spreads energy and hope in each moment

May 23 2022

Harpeth Hall students process down Souby Lawn for Graduation 2022.

For most of their young lives, our girls want everything to happen faster. They want to be taller, smarter, more independent, more grown up. They look forward to the day when they can make their own choices and be in charge of themselves. They dream of what is to come.

As they get older, navigating their way through the grades and the years, time does fly by — just as they had hoped — and the moments they have been living for go by in a flash.

“As busy teenagers, and generally, as humans, we live in pursuit of happiness,” Lexie Fitzgerald ‘22 said. “We rush to the weekend, and on Sunday night, we can’t wait for next Friday night to come around. My whole life I have lived pushing through weekdays, routine classes, sports practices, you name it, to get to the weekend or a big event.”

But then, when senior year arrives, they realize something. It has all gone by so fast. Each next big event becomes the last. The last game. The last performance. The last exam. The last day of high school.

Lexie Fitzgerald, senior graduation speaker, delivers her remarks at Graduation 2022.

On Monday, the Class of 2022 celebrated the final moments of their years at Harpeth Hall with a graduation ceremony on Souby Lawn. As Lexie stood at the podium on the steps of the Ann Scott Carell Library and addressed her classmates and all those who had come to take part in the special event, she didn’t wish for it to go faster. Instead, she invited everyone to fully experience the moment.

“Something will always be there — until it isn’t,” said Lexie, who was chosen by her class as the senior graduation speaker. “You can sit in math class staring at the clock, until you can’t. You can hurry to Friday at 3:10, until you can’t. You can hug your parents, eat with your siblings, walk your dog, until you can’t. So my advice to you is don’t take that rain check and don’t push anything off. Take whatever chance you’ve been given, because soon independence will call, and what is familiar now will become your childhood.”

The Class of 2022 showed this year what it looks like to soak up and live in each passing moment. The vibrancy of the seniors could be seen in every intense hacky sack game and rockin’ dance party on the senior patio. There were brilliant displays of confidence and leadership on the athletic fields, where seniors led the way to four state championships, and in the classroom with 32 global scholars exploring everything from global literacy to hydropower.

“I heard a rumor that many of you burst into tears when the last bell rang on your last day of classes,” Head of School Jess Hill said in her graduation address to the senior class. “Show me another high school where the students cry when the last bell rings.

“You had a large portion of your high school experience disrupted by a pandemic and instead of bitterness, you gained perspective. You learned how to appreciate the small things as we slowly returned to normalcy."

And, in doing so, Ms. Hill said, this year's senior class brought energy and hope to the year, holding on to every minute so that none of it slipped by too fast.