I didn’t see it coming.

As the silver suburban blew past the ARC entrance, I stopped so suddenly that a small stream escaped my double shot latte and splattered my unsuspecting hand.

Classic Monday morning.

Wheeling around to catch a second glimpse of the car, I noticed the slogan on the bumper sticker: Hockaday Class of 2025.

I came to the realization that the Class of 2025 is actually a thing, stopped suddenly and doused myself in overly-caffeinated brown stuff once more.

The girl riding in the silver suburban has the best of 12 years left at this school. I have the best of two months.

I began trying to imagine what the world will look like by the time she stands in my shoes (throwing coffee all over herself and watching Lower School parents turn the parking lot into a warzone).

I remembered when Mr. Kramer told our U.S. history class that the past is the best predictor of the future. Or maybe I read it in Harry Potter? Either way, it must be true.

So I began to think about how things have changed since I donned my first pair of saddle oxfords.

Fourteen years ago, Google barely existed, iPods were merely a figment of Steve Jobs’ imagination and Hockaday sixth graders did not have cell phones (much less Toshibas).

Half of the buildings that now make up our school were scattered around the world as clay and trees and dust.

And we were yet to see the single largest loss of life from a foreign attack on American soil. The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The election of a black president.

It’s safe to say the last 14 years have been at least tumultuous, at times turbulent and rarely settled. One can only imagine if the next 14 years will measure up.

I don’t know if the 18-year-old version of the girl in the Suburban will stand in this same spot having experienced comparable change in economic, social, technological and domestic security fronts.

It goes without saying that, in the coming 14 years, we do not wish for history to repeat itself in the way of wars and recessions. But it also should not go without saying that the events we’ve lived through as a class these last 14 years have caused us to grow and mature in ways we don’t often consider.

We’ve undergone 14 of our most formative years in tandem with our country. And I think, in many ways, we’re better for it.

As a result of the time we’ve lived in, it’s possible that we’ll live our lives with a heightened appreciation for national security. For technological mobility. For economic stability. For purest social equality.

I think it is also possible that we’ll benefit from the underlying commonalities we share with one another as a result of the 14 years in which we came of age.

And I hope that, in years to come, we return to Hockaday in pursuit of memories from a simpler time. I hope that we remember how, in 14 years together, we aged remarkably. And I hope that the girl in the silver suburban gets to grow up in a time just as astonishingly unique.

But I’m not sure she will. Then again, I didn’t see these last 14 years coming.

I didn’t see it coming.

-Hailey