If you somehow missed the giant tent that was built and taken down in the course of one month or the visit from our nation’s former First Lady Laura Bush, this year is Hockaday’s centennial year. And that makes the class of 2014 the centennial class – the 100th group of girls to graduate from the Hockaday School.

But then there’s us: the class of 2015, who has the great honor of being the 101st graduating class.

We, along with the rest of the student body, were a huge part of the centennial celebrations. We got to celebrate and witness its historic significance and grandeur, but we also get to do something far more special. We get to experience the aftermath.

With all the flair and extravagance of the centennial year behind us, we can watch Hockaday return to a new and improved normal one with a new science building.

Only one out of my 12 years at Hockaday was the centennial year. When I think of my time at Hockaday, my memories are of friends, classroom discussions and amazing teachers. I’m so glad that my last year at Hockaday can represent that and be a regular year.

No longer under the centennial spotlight , we can relax, unbutton the gold buttons on our blazers, maybe even step on the heels of our oxfords and have the wonderfully ordinary school year we so crave.

Furthermore, we get to be the class that ushers in the second century. Rather than being the class that missed it by a year, we might secretly be the class with the coolest title of them all: the first class of the new century. We get to set the precedent for the new century, a new generation of Hockadaisies.

If you know anything about the class of 2015, you know that we are not your standard class. We set the record for the most all grade lectures in Middle School and came into Upper School as the sass class with an attitude problem. We can never agree on anything and it’s a guaranteed fact we will have run offs for everything we vote on. But as biased as I am, I love my class and I wouldn’t  trade graduating alongside all 123 of them for being the centennial class.

It’s also only fitting that our graduation ceremony can now represent us rather than being a tribute to Hockaday’s birthday. When I’m graduating, I don’t want everyone in the crowd to be focused on the celebrity speaker or fixated on the centennial aspect of it. I want to see a crowd of friends and family who are all there just to see me graduate, to see us graduate.

Next year might not be the centennial, but it’s still our senior year and we are going to fill it with our own historic celebrations and memories, and I can’t wait for it all.

So let’s hear it for the class of 2015. (Our senior chant if we ever come up with one).

– Avita Anand