Sivahn BarsadeEditor-in-chief

As high school students we make mistakes. Peo-ple vary in their choice of errors: some fail tests, some trip over inanimate objects, some fight with their parents, some hurt themselves, some hurt others, some crash a car, some break the law, some break a bone.

During my own high school career, af ter a day ful l of mistakes, a day where it seemed that everything went wrong, my mom asked “so what did you learn from those mistakes?” I was about to commit mistake number three mentioned above (fight w i t h p a r e n t s ) a n d b e r a t e her for: not allowing me to wallow in my misery but instead forcing me to relive the horrible day and dig up some “lesson.” But then, in a fit of sudden calmness, I followed her advice.

I recounted each mis -fortune and thought about how either I could have prevented it or how I could have altered my response. I decided to make a con-s c i o u s e f f o r t n e v e r t o make that specific mistake again and surpr is ingly I fe l t be t ter ( the p iece of chocolate may have helped a bit too). But the heal-ing powers of chocolate aside, ever since that af-ternoon I always work to f ind some lesson in my (multiple) mistakes, and it really helps—both by not repeating the same mistake

again, but also pushing me to focus on improving instead of wallowing in the embarrassment and frustration.

Just as teachers and coaches don’t want us to make the same academic or athletic mistake over and over again (thus prompting test corrections and foul shots practice) we should push ourselves

to avoid repeating the same interpersonal mis-takes. We should look at high school as a

time both to mess- u p a n d l e a r n something in the process.

June 8, 2010

Seniors 2010S2

Reflections from our editors in chargeHannah WeilbacherManaging Editor

I entered LM as a petrified freshman. I had come from a class of 39 to one of hundreds, where I knew fewer than five of my classmates on day one. Armed with my Smackers lip-gloss, a hair straightener, and my brand new LL Bean backpack, I saw every day as a battle. How do I get to my next study hall? Who can I sit with at lunch? Why can’t my teachers remem-

ber my name? I remember walking through the halls completely and totally lost, both physically (it took me days to figure out how to get to the cooking room and the annex) and emotionally. I didn’t raise my hand, I didn’t make a fuss. I wanted to stay under the ra-dar. If no one sees me, they can’t dislike me, right?

But I chose to dispose of that philosophy with-in the first few weeks, when I joined Players. I

joined on a whim – I liked theatre enough – but I had no idea how important it would

become for me. I didn’t know that it would provide me with a community of positive, intelligent, fun kids, or that it would give me life experi-ences that would help me after high school, or that I would learn as much about who I was as a person as I did about putting on a show.

Luckily, I shed my arsenal as soon as I was swept up by Play-ers, and later by The Merionite, and by other outside activities that I loved. While I know I would

have socialized enough to get by in classes, my extra-curriculars threw

me into the settings I needed to not simply get by, but to thrive. Not only did I find a community of friends who loves and supports me, but I found job experience, I found out how to run organizations, make a newspaper, and work with the administration in a pro-ductive way. And it was always fun!

I am vastly different from the freshman I was four years ago, and I think that my positive growth is a direct result of my involvement with LM. So, if you haven’t already, take advantage of the wonderful extra-curriculars LM has to offer. Join a team – even if you just want to be their statistician. Go out for Players’ fall musical—if you don’t get in, join scenery and build a sweet set. Write for The Merionite, or take pictures with the Photo Club, or write po-etry for the Dolphin, or exercise your brain at TSA or Science Olympiad. But do something! If nothing else, it will be fun.

The Merionite

Hana RouseEditor-in-chief

Senior year was nothing like I expected. I cer-tainly developed my own case of Senioritis and ended my fair share of tweets with “Seniors X,” but I don’t think I ever experienced that mythical mo-ment of release when everything suddenly became easy. I don’t know if my classmates had similar ex-periences, but for me the work load never lessened as senior year progressed: teachers still justifiably cared about their classes; there were always SAT IIs and AP tests to study for; extracurricular activi-ties did not suddenly end. The legendary easy senior year that I had been promised never happened for me.

That being said, senior year was still the highlight of my four years of high school, though for very dif-ferent reasons than I expected. Senior year is a liminal time of transition. As we prepare to move on to the next chapter in our lives, we work to both strength-

en the friendships we already have and reach out to the people that we never had the chance to interact with. I think that I met more new and interesting people in senior year than during any other year of high school. To the upperclassmen I became closer to, I wish I had more time to get to know you. To the underclassmen, I advise you to reach out to the people around you while you have the chance.

Senior year really is about the people you meet. They are what we will remember when we think back on high school. The building we spent four years in is being torn down; tangible things like The Merionite office and the auditorium lobby will no longer exist when we revisit our high school. The thing that really binds us will forever be our class-mates and the memories we have made together. So many of those moments center on senior year. Senior year is when we witnessed the return of the school dance and finally beat Radnor in football. During senior year we were introduced to the 1-1 and fought the administration over grading policies and watched Players host its first sold-out show in years.

I still stand by what I said in the begin-ning: senior year was by no means easy. I spent the first half attempting to maintain my grades for college, and the second half trying to survive the heavy workload that as a junior I was crazy enough to think I could handle. However, it is also the year that changed me the most. I don’t know if I could pin down exactly how I changed. I know that I matured; I know that I have grown. In addition to all the good things that senior year has taught me, it also helped me refine the art of procras-tination. And so, as I turn in this reflec-tion one week after the due date, I am left with one lingering thought: Seniors X!!!

Photos by Madeline Berger/staff

June 8, 2010

Seniors 2010S3

Eisner represents class of 2010 as Valedictorian

I feel compelled to make clear, as vale-dictorian, that grades were not my focus and should not be the focus of any high school student. Lower Merion high School fosters enough anxiety about grades and building up resumes for colleges. But the way I understood my time in High School was not working for every grade or trying to buffer my resume, but instead to find joy and excitement and relationships be-tween everything I was doing.

Learning to love academics and make learning fun is definitely challeng-ing, and I definitely did not succeed in every class or every day, but when I did succeed, it both increased my energy and made subjects easier to understand and learn, because I liked it and I felt that it connected within the broad spectrum of studies that I was undertaking. Under-standing the historical context of math-ematical and scientif ic achievements, and literary works, or following women through history and thinking about how women play sports and exert energy and release aggressiveness all tied together for me, and gave me just a few windows through which I could look at and under-stand almost everything I learned in High School. Freshmen year, I even went to the oncologist with my grandmother because I thought I had seen a relationship between enzyme inhibitors, which I was learning

about in Bio, and chemotherapy. And it turned out I was right – when I took the test on that unit, I was able to really under-stand the functions of enzyme inhibitors, because I had seen them used and acting in real life. Not only was it easier, but I just liked everything more that way!

I do love many of the things I learned in High School, and it disappoints me when people lose hope in finding joy in what they are learning, or doing outside the classroom. I believe that everyone should do what they love, and in turn, they will be successful, because loving what you do is what enhances your en-ergy and happiness in your whole life. I loved calculus, and lit, and music major, and chorus, and physics, and loving all of these classes influenced me so much to keep working and keep wanting to learn, and even more to keep trying to help other people learn. I love when people widen their eyes to the idea that they too can enjoy what they’re learning.

However, on top of every moment of academic enjoyment, I f ind myself remembering the moments outside the classroom even more. I t was always important for me to find myself taking a break from working, or putting something at a high priority, even. So many spring afternoons, I’ve found myself outside playing ultimate at the park, or just lying in the grass talking with a friend. Spend-ing time away from the classroom, outside in the beautiful environment was what I needed to ensure happiness and reduce anxiety in my life. This winter, the most beautiful moments were in the deep snow with friends I had had since elementary school, laughing and playing. Time al-most seemed stopped then—like in James Joyce’s The Dead when the snow over all of Ireland holds the characters from letting go of the past—and I could still enjoy and experience high school and my friends and living at home. And now, even when the snow is gone, I still will always look back at High School as a time in which I learned so much about who I am and what I enjoy, and how to capture those two elements of me and use them to harness success and foremost happiness.

A fond farewell to LM...

I love the art show. All year the art program is iso-lated in a mysterious corner of the Tech Building. Not be-ing an artist myself, except for the occasional glance at a friend’s drawing pad, my high school days are essen-tially art-less. But every year when May comes around, displays of art pop up all around the high school. And even though it frustrates the gym teachers by taking up the only gym in the build-ing, the ar t show brings something to the building that (sorry Mr. Downer) gym class does not. When you re- a l -ly stop to look at the displays i n the Down’s gym, you real- i z e something. “Wow. This art is ridicu-lous.” There are the good displays, and then there are the jaw-dropping displays, like are you kidding me Hanna Williams those paintings are nasty (nasty good). It really goes to show how talented Lower Merion students really are.

This was, of course, the last year in the old building. “Everything’s going to be dif -ferent next year,” I’ve been hearing a lot. As Seniors, though, instead of declaring our mis-fortune a curse, we looked at it as an opportunity. The last Pep Rally in the Down’s gym was hype (not so much for you, though, Freshmen). And we put on easily the best Maroon Madness event ever (safe to say that event is here to stay). Lower Merion High School might look different next year, but it will be more the same than you realize. At Lower Merion, there is an ineffable sense of spirit that hovers over the maroon and white. And it’s not just at the pep

rallies. It’s in the art rooms and the music rooms; it’s in Players and Dawgma; it’s in Science Olympiad and Student Government. It’s every-where, it’s inescapable.

The setting next year will be dif-ferent. The bathrooms won’t have any graffiti, the walls won’t be lit-tered with posters, mice won’t fall from Mr. Lynn’s ceiling. But the school will remain the same. The

new bu i l d ing doesn’t mean a “fresh start” for Lower Merion H igh Schoo l . We don’t need a fresh start. What we need to do is to carry on the tradit ions and the spiri t that

makes Lower Merion so special. Thirty years from now, the world

will be very different. There will probably be teleportation, hov-ercrafts, and schools all across America will be kick starting their 1:1 iPad programs. But when I come back to Lower Merion High School thirty years from now I expect to feel the same way I’ve felt for the past four years—at home.

Though we may hate to admit it, things are about to change. For the past four years, we have all come to the same place five days a week. We’ve gone to the same

classrooms, used the same lockers, and seen the same faces. But, when we come back to visit, Lower Merion High School will be an unfamiliar building. We won’t be

able to meet our friends in the main lob, we won’t know where to find Mr. Kaczmar, in fact, we won’t even know where the bathrooms are. The halls will be flooded with new students, who will be as unfamiliar to us as we are to them. The Lower Merion we entered four years ago has transformed, with a new principal, a new schedule, and of course, new computers. And although at the moment the scariest thing may seem to be leaving our family and friends, I believe the hardest part will be letting go of the familiar encounters that we have grown accustomed to over the years we have spent in this building.

When we return home, our family and close friends will be there for us. We all know we will be making an ef-fort to see them over breaks during the year, not to mention the entire summer we have ahead of us. But what about the people that we don’t make an effort to see every day? What about the friends we have made simply by being here?

I’m talking about the girl who has sat behind you in history and cracked jokes about the substitute teacher who talks during tests. Or the kid you know from gym who gave you a ride home from the plat when you thought you were totally stranded. And don’t forget that junior in your AP E&M class who had your back when you needed their help on a Webassign at one in the morning.

Over the past four years, I have spent more time dur-ing the school day with these classmates than with my best friends. These are the familiar faces that have gotten me through the week, for the past four years. And, inevitably, these are people that it is going to be the hardest to keep in touch with once we leave. These friendships were held together simply because we were required to spend six hours a day in this school. And now that we have finished

that stage in our lives, that require-ment no longer serves to reinforce that bond. It is now our responsibility to maintain what-ever friendships we have formed.

For those of you who have a few more years left in this place, take advantage of those relationships. Appreciate the periodic encounters you have with these classmates, and use the opportunity you have to form friendships. When you find yourself in a class without your usual clique, reach out to meet someone new. As homogeneous as the Lower Merion student body may seem at times, it truly contains a vast array of interesting personalities. So get to know these people. Because when it’s all said and done, you’ll miss that familiarity the most. I know I already do.

Maintaining friendships, beyond your immediate circle

“I expect to feel the same way I’ve felt for the past four years—at home.”

The Merionite

Emily Eisner JJ Hoffstein

Anna Menaged

“it is now our responsibility to maintain whatever friendships

we have formed.”

Remember a freshman year spent in the Ardmore An-nex, may it rest in peace, when H days existed and the cocoa yams of Okonkwo dominated our English class

discussions? Re-member that cool first day outfit, which we wouldn’t be caught dead wearing now? As cliché as it sounds, so much has changed since that 2006-2007 school year.

The week before I began LM, I dreamt this recurring nightmare, four

nights in a row, in which high school

was some sort of amalgamation of The Breakfast Club and High School Musical. Coming from a private school where my previous grade was one-tenth the size of LM’s incoming freshman class, I convinced myself that I would not make it out alive and created a plan b, c, and d for the first day of school. Graced with a 101 degree fe-ver, I embarked on the anticipated first day with a feeling of slight nausea as I tried to navigate through the angst filled hallways. I came home (yes I cried) convinced I was the only one who felt incredibly lost and lonely.

While that story is admittedly slightly embarrassing, luckily I did survive to tell the tale and somewhere along these four years, that individual experience morphed into a shared experience. I can’t identify that specific turning point for me, but I believe that everyone, at one time or another, has felt a part of this. Maybe it was during those inevitably rainy fire drills, or maybe it was at 11:30 at night as you worked with half of your physics class to finish that web assign by midnight. Maybe it was be-moaning the toiletless bathrooms, shaking your booty at a pep rally, or maybe it was just complaining about school.

It wasn’t just the Shakespeare we read that taught us, but the laughter that filled the hall as we acted out the roles and the heated discussions that con-tinued far past the bell. We subconsciously pushed aside social barriers and stereotypes, and while it may have only lasted for a few minutes, it left an imprint.

As Vitamin C so eloquently put it, “when we look back now…will we still remember everything we learned in school?” Probably not. But while I may not be able to recite the hormones of the endocrine system or the exact points of the Treaty of Versailles, I still remember 8th period “dance parties” in Ries’ fresh-man bio class and Shelby Foote impersonations in APUSH. I still remember when I discovered that most everyone felt lost at some point during freshman year.

So don’t box yourself in, because it all comes together, I promise. Sen10rsX

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a ques-tion that gets tossed around a lot by the people in my life. From when I first strapped on my little pink Barbie backpack

for kindergarten to last weekend when my aunt pressed an envelope with a $100 bill into my hands as a gradu-ation present, I can remember that question be-ing asked. People are obsessed with the future—of possibilities, of what will be. It’s only natural hu-man curiosity that prompts this cli-ché question over and over again.

But living continually in preparation for the future causes people to also write off the present. They forget that today has importance too. I’ve observed while in high school that students

get wrapped up in this question of “being” in the future as well. Maybe not to the extent that they agonize over career options and different professions, but there is an overwhelming aura of “I will be the student who applies to college with a perfect GPA. I will be the one who at least passes that Physics test. I will be the kid who doesn’t get caught at the Plat. I will be the girl who kisses that cute guy at that party tonight. I will be, I will be.” In-sert whatever you’d like- I’m sure it holds truth to some extent.

It’s not bad to have goals and to be ambitious. It is however unfortunate to be so one-dimensional and to forget the present entirely. To forget to stop and appre-ciate is not only idiotic, but also to an extent, selfish.

Forget that trite question above, routinely (and often insin-cerely) asked. Instead ask yourselves and each other: “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” Rather than focusing on what we will be, focus on who we are today, and the type of per-son we hope to be in the future. Personality traits, more so than labels, should define us and our future. Too often admirable qualities are forgotten in high school. Too often people forget that the way they interact with others is so incredibly important.

So remaining students at Lower Merion—I leave you with this one piece of advice. Life is paradoxical-ly short and long at the same time. It’s too short to not live in the present, but long enough to be some-thing beautiful… if you should choose to make it so.

Back during the wretched “College Pro-cess,” people used to say to me, “Rachel, it doesn’t really matter where you go. You’ll be happy wherever you end up.” And while

this may be true, that I may indeed be happy, I felt a strong, unyielding, and often hard to articulate sensation that the different institu-tions I attend shape who I become, and thus, the decision did greatly matter.

Why did I feel this way?I think the majority of Lower Merion stu-

dents would say that Harriton students, stu-dents that live in the same geographical loca-tion, learning with comparable resources and opportunities, and of similar demographics, are, simply different. No matter how much the administration would like to “equalize” us, in the end, we have a distinct culture here. A unique feel. A different attitude. And, un-doubtedly, it has made me who I am.

Lower Merion has taught me to laugh at myself. I was electrocuted by a computer cart during a Health class in 10th grade. All my tampons spilled out in front of Savi’s Hut freshman year. I’ve tripped down the stairs, I’m pretty sure I’ve tripped up the stairs, and

even as a senior I’ve fallen off The Ledge. But no worries. I’m still here, and I’m happy.

And because I can laugh at myself, I can laugh at other things too. Making webcam jokes that don’t get old, affectionately mock-ing our librarians, teasing our teachers’ man-nerisms, joking about the state of our bath-room stalls…it’s as if our entire year is set up to look for material for the April Fools edition of The Merionite. Don’t get caught up with cynicism about the SATs or the fal-lacious notions that “LM only cares about packaging us up for college.” It’ll only turn you into a sour, angry person. Instead, throw spitballs back. An overarching message I took from Lower Merion is this: life is short, so make fun of it.

But find things that you care about also, and take them seriously. Be it a friend, a boy-friend, a club, a team, a class, a cause—put your passion into something. Your time here will seem, and BE, wasted without it.

I’m going to end this with a piece of ad-vice: make friends outside your immediate social circle. A group is good in many ways, and provides the kind of comfort you won’t find anywhere else. But in a place like Lower Merion, where there are so many interest-ing individuals walking through the halls, to confine yourself solely to kids in your grade, that have known you for a long time, would be to sell yourself short. My experience has been made so much richer by older friends, younger friends, mock trial friends, Merion-ite friends, field hockey friends, and teacher friends. (Yes, I said teacher friends.)

Lower Merion is unique. Some may call it an unrealistic bubble. Whatever you want to call it, all I know is that I just spent the last four years in one of the most spirited, earnest, and special places I could have found myself. And I really mean it when I say I hope you all get as much out of your time here as I did. It goes fast. Live it up and laugh.

I splatted.I wouldn’t deem it a fall or a trip or a tumble. I literally “splat-

ted.” And I’m sure the entire table of upperclassmen heard the splat as they stood, pointed and laughed. But who wouldn’t have? A prepubes-cent freshman boy had just placed one of his crutches on the strap of a backpack and had immedi-ately face-planted, crutches and legs splayed.

Time has since numbed the embar-rassment I felt that day as I crutched quickly out of the cafeteria. I know for a fact, however, that

even after that pesky injury healed and I was crutch-free, I still struggled to find my footing at LM. Sure, I technically “walked” through the halls, waving amiably to vague acquaintances, but in this school of 1400 students, I thought I was slipping.

Teachers and administrators would wave to other freshmen whose older siblings they remembered and I would summon my most sullen oldest sibling sigh. At pep rallies, seniors sprayed silly string upon the juniors to a school-wide roar of excitement and I would wonder why I shared none of the fun I was witnessing.

As my high school slip n’ slide stretched into sophomore year, I wondered if my quest to plant my feet at LM would ever prove fruitful. Every time I thought I had maybe begun to understand the behemoth school in which I was trapped, LM changed. We wel-

comed a new principal—twice. A new schedule—twice. A new Athletics Director. A new floor plan of the building.

My visceral reaction to this disorientation was to reach out and find a grip. With increasing conviction, I was determined to find that foothold from which I could gain a secure vantage point to observe the ever-changing LM landscape. I wanted to carve an identity in this building. My eyes closed, I relied on an innate sense to point me in the direction of the most appropriate stepping stones, and I threw my hand in the air to volunteer to direct a class production of Twelfth Night. I threw in an application to be an editor of The Merionite. I threw myself into the audition and rehearsal process for Guys and Dolls.

These were horseshoe tosses, meant to link to something somewhere, and they worked. I suddenly found myself not only walking with purpose through my school, but even sauntering down basketball courts in intramural games and strutting my goodies down runways in school-wide pageants. I had gained a foothold through intense involvement in a couple of key activities and, subsequently, my disorientation melted. LM’s opportunities became mine to harvest.

But really, these horseshoe tosses were bound to be successful—eventually. It’s inevitable that in such a new, large environment we feel lost, for even two years. We look for connections, we rely a bit on instinct to guide us, and we finally plant our feet and from there discover the rest of LM’s offerings.

Of course, LM may not be as dramatically disorienting as I’ve depicted. After all, we have our perennial support systems. We’re coddled. We’re privileged. We’re spoiled, even, to go to a school like LM that has such a devoted and capable community supporting it. But one can still fall with crutches.

Learning to wade through the massive sea of LM is a commend-able feat no matter how privileged we may be. It’s a feat of which I’m proud, as an individual and as a member of a senior class that has planted its feet. We don’t need crutches anymore.

June 8, 2010

Seniors 2010S4

Connie Hua

Rachel Cohen

Bina Peltz

Isaac Lindy

Ask who, not what, you want to be

I’m crutching on you, class of 2010

Finding ourselves amongst the lost

“Life is short, so make fun of it”

The Merionite

Go ahead, clap for me. That’s right, I deserve it, I’m graduating high school. I’ve done enough papers, pre-

sentations, and home-works to call myself a senior. You know, I used to look up at the seniors my freshman year and wonder how they got so old; now I look at my self and wonder, why am I still so short? However, a lot has changed over the years, and these 4 years at Lower Meri-on have been grand.

I started out, like most of us, a shy lil’

froshypoo who hoped to not get caught in the

midst of a stampede in the clustered hallways. I used to sit on Penny Packer field and eat my lunch during 7th period,

the same time every day. But soon that field turned to dirt and then morphed into a concrete box.

Then sophomore year tumbled along. Ahh yes, sopho-more year, the forgotten year. I can say firmly that this was my favorite year. I think it was the mix of the new schedule, the sophomore slump and my classes that made this year so beautifully chaotic. No, re-ally, I did enjoy my 79 minute block of chemistry every B day! The colors of every class all came together creating a mural of thoughts, questions, adventures and advice. Sophomore year I learned to think on my feet and ask the right ques-tions.

Alright, junior year wasn’t that bad. It’s not like I cried myself to sleep every night. Like all years, it had its ups and downs. While the ups were tiny little skips and the downs were like falling down a flight of stairs and then being kicked in the face with iron toe boots, I still got through it. Which means, (look at this! Words of encouragement!) you can too. If it was one thing I learned form junior year it’d be (*cough* play ultimate),

stop, take a breather, and relax; these AP tests, PSSA’s, ACT’s, SAT’s, won’t kill you. You’ll be fine.

They always say that the view is better from the top. Well, it is! Here I am, at the top of the totem pole and senior year is winding down. As a senior I enjoyed being that kid who caused a ruckus and ran over any innocent

underclassman that got in my way. However, senior year wasn’t all fun and games. First semester was by far the hardest semester I’ve been through (sorry to all those juniors who were looking for a break…). Yeah I did wait until the night before it was due to write my college essay, but

that’s not the point. Don’t give up your senior year, at least not the first half.

Well, here I am now. I’m graduating soon and I can’t believe how quickly these 4 years have gone by. While I’m sad to see it go, I’ll always have fond memories of high school. I wish you all the best of luck where ever you end up. Seniors X.

June 8, 2010

Seniors 2010S5

The MerioniteRole reversal: the journey from short freshman to (short) senior

Dani Dobkin

I remember walking to class in the Ardmore An-nex for freshman year humanities. It was the same group of us, every day, and we were nearly always

la te . (As some of you remember, the walk from the audi-torium lobby to the far reaches of the Annex was roughly 6.2 miles long.) As the bell got closer and closer to ring-ing we would start to speed up, over-ly fu l l backpacks s l amming aga ins t our shoulders as we raced down the hall-way to African and Asian studies. The run down the humid,

chlorine-scented hall was a blur; we barely spoke as we panted and squeaked over the linoleum.

At some point during the year, maybe mid-winter, I realized that it wouldn’t matter if I was 30 sec-

onds late to class. It wouldn’t even matter if I was 45 seconds, or even a minute late. That’s when I stopped running.

Not everyone in that little group shared my same flouting of authority. I watched them speed ahead of me as I leisurely strolled behind. I tried my hard-

est to convince them that there would be very few consequences to our miniscule tardiness, but most of them didn’t buy it. They insisted that the rules were there for a reason.

I held that opinion in angsty adolescent disdain; how could my peers, my best friends, my brilliant and intellectually astute classmates be so caught up in the game school forced us to play? Margin-ally disgusted, I dropped the subject and decided to

blaze my own trail. Being late was a victory I held alone; no one else had achieved the same level of rebellious triumph.

Throughout the years of high school, I realized that my own little form of resistance wasn’t the only way to achieve happiness. Not everyone needed the satisfaction of pseudo-beating-the-system to feel content. It was really okay that some of my classmates adhered strictly to the rules; in their own ways their high school paths were as fulfilling as mine. Late, early, or on time, we all made it through these four years.

Now, as the bell to begin our post high school ca-reers gets closer to ringing, I continue to appreciate the paths we have all chosen to take. I know that the way each of us is dealing with the transition, this liminal time, is the right way for each indi-vidual. It’s okay that I’m walking while others run; it’s okay that some of us want to move on quickly while others want to savor the past. This may be unbelievable, but I’m pretty sure that the hallway leading to the rest of our lives is a lot longer than the hallway to the end of the Ardmore Annex. I’m sure I’ll see you all on the way there (though I may be a few minutes late).

Becca Hafter

My four years at Lower Merion have been an exciting and foundational part of my life. The relationships I have developed have shaped me and will continue to influence me on many levels. Not only have I formed tight relationships with peers,

but also, many LM teachers have shaped my think-ing and inspired me intellectually. Some teachers have pushed me beyond surface-level judgments, challenging me to “think big” while delivering the highest quality work. Others have sparked real curiosity in subject areas that carried little prior interest. Combined, my many valuable experiences with the LM teacher community have helped me establish a solid foundation of knowledge and con-stant love of learning and has thoroughly prepared me for a lively and intellectually rigorous college experience.

Along with great academic success, I have also spent the past four years working toward high levels of athletic success on the basketball court. Anyone who knows me understands the pride I take in Lower Merion Girls’ Basketball. The program has

given me countless memories and taught me important lessons associated with hard work, determination, teamwork and leadership—qualities I will utilize throughout my life. My supportive coaches and all of my teammates cannot be thanked enough. This extraordinary group has been instrumental in my development as an athlete, my soaring success in my senior season and the opportunity to continue my basketball career at the collegiate level.

I leave Lower Merion with intellectual confidence, enduring relationships, great life skills and a strong sense of community. No matter where I go or what I aspire to accomplish in the future, my high school years have provided an extraordinarily supportive foundation to pursue whatever goals I set next and opportunities that may come my way. I will always value the privilege of a Lower Merion High School diploma.

Dana Albalancy

The value of LM

Walking or running, we’ll get there all the same

I really only have a couple of sugges-tions to the future kids of this school. The first, be bold. Over the last few

weeks that I’ve sat back and reminisced on my high school career I realize that the memories that are most vivid are the ones where I put myself out there and went against the grain. Although some of these experiences may have been scary at the time, as I sit here about to graduate, I could not be more happy that I went through with them. Think back on what you learned last Tuesday in class. I bet you don’t remember much, but I’m sure you’ll remember the time

you stood in front of your class to make a speech, getting the lead in the school play, or scoring the game winning goal. I’ve learned that Lower Merion is one of the best high schools that gives you the opportunity to make a name for yourself so take advantage of it. Don’t be afraid to be bold.

My last word of advice is my most important as well as easiest to follow. Be kind to one another. In my last four years at Lower Merion I’ve realized that school isn’t so bad when people are good to one another. What you may not realize now is that this school is your second home and that makes the people that go to this school your second family, so why not be good to your family? I can hon-estly say that the people I’ve meet in my last four years in this high school have taught me more than what I learned in the classrooms and have made me the person I am today, and will be tomorrow when I go into the real world. The more kind you are to people, the more willing to teach you they’ll be, and the more ready you will be in your future endeavors. So thanks to everyone I’ve met over the last four years. Whether I had four years of class with you or just a four minute con-versation, you have all taught me things that I will never forget.

Going against the grain

“I started out, like most of us, a shy lil’

froshypoo”

“Being late was a victory I held alone; no one else had achieved the same level of

rebellious triumph.”

Kyle Peters

LM Matriculation 2010: Go Forth To Serve...Beatrice AbbotPeter AbramowitzBenjamin AdamsJacob AdenbaumDana AlbalancyDavid Ancona-ColeKatarina AntonJulien AoyamaElizabeth Arganbright Margaret ArkoMaija Aro-BaileyDaniel AronowitzStephanie ArthurJacob AvershalSarah BadinMaxwell BalbinHannah BaranovJennifer BarkerLilith BarlowOlya BarnettSivahn BarsadeSeth Barton-RobertsAndrea BattChristopher BaumohlMarta BeanIan BellahZoe BendittLila BerenholzAliza BergerMyles BersonAntwine BingMichael BlockDouglas BlumZachary BlumenfeldMichael BluntClaudia BokulichCaitlin BonneyJake BosinRachael BowenJessica BowmanHannah BrannauRachel BreslowAndrea BrintMarcus BrockingtonJordan BromleyEva BrownElizabeth BrussJulia BuckmanNicholas BurgosOlivia BurnsHaesun Burris-LeeBridget ButlerAlexandra CadeChristian CaramanicaCaroline CarpeyMadeleine CarrollChloe CastellucciSule CerdanShourjo ChakravortyAlexander ChambersAngela ChangRobert ChaseWilliam ChimekasKaren ChonofskyMatthew CiarrochiCourtney CinesKelly ClarkRyan ClintonDaniel CohenOliver CohenPierce CohenRachel CohenJordan CooperAlexander CopeAnna CorriganLilian CrooksRobert CrossAylin DaldalRuth Dana

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Anna MenagedGuy MentelRon MentelAlyson MillerJonathan MillerAlexis Miller-GolubAsahel MillisRyan MinsterAndrew MongeluzziElizabeth MooseburnerEthan MoritzChristopher MorrillParis MorrisonCasey MurraySara MurrayDana MyersMomo NakagawaAlec NathanJonas NewschafferAnthony NguyenQuinton NisticoSophie NovickIsrael Nuñez-MarcosNnaemeka NwaforMarcus OdomHeather PaleyEmily PartridgeAnthipi PaxinosMargaret PayneJulien PearsonBina PeltzKyle PetersFrieda Peterson-HornerSamantha PlattRebecca PlotnickJulia PolicastroMark PotterStephen PriftiMichael RabinowitzRenee RagwanRyan RampersaudZachary RayAdam ReicherterChristopher ReillyNeirys RichterRebecca RittenbergAngus RobertsonBrian RobertsonHoward RobinsSophia RodbellAlexandra RoeslerPaige RollinsMagali RomanEric RosenbaumDanielle RosenzweigDaniel RosnerBrenna RossJamal RossDena RothmanHana RouseJoshua RubinNoor RuwaihChristina SaccoAdam SachsAdam SaltzbergJulia SarnackiBenjamin SataloffJohnathan SataloffAnkur SaxenaMax ScharfAndrew SchiffrinBenjamin SchlesingerChristina SchoenhardDylan ScottAlon SeltzerJoseph ShallowKyra ShoreGabriel SiegalAndrew Silver

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Sophie SkokeMomadu SluwarAllison SmithLucas SmithShulamit SmithJordan Smith-HobsonLaura SokilEmily SorensonJulia SosenkoRyan SpencerZane StalbergAlexa StangoJustin StarkmanJoseph StedfordJames StellatoLauren StevensClaire SummersLeah SuttonElese SwiftDaniel SzallsiEva TanMax TassanoKouri TaylorStephanie ThaiRobert ThomasChelsey ThompsonNile ThompsonJordan TillageDaniel TimmJessica TitlebaumNash TomeyCarolina TorresChristopher TurtonTamir TusiaEllen UrheimJack Van AdelsbergLucas Van HoutenDelia VotschTaylor VottoJulia VresilovicLazar VuckovicMichael WadeXavion WallsKathryn WalshTianwei WangXinran WangJames WarshawJade WatermanRyan WatsonJennifer WeidnerHannah WeilbacherAri WeisbandCaroline WellsKate WerderKara WertheimerBriana WhiteWalter WhitemanHanna WilliamsSarah WinstonDaniel WitteMeron WoidislavskyJordan WolfCraig WootenNechelle WootenRekik WorkuDominique WrightJamai WrightCarmel YaariAhmad Zachary-DuncanLauren ZakheimZachary ZeloufYueyi ZhouBenjamin ZielonkaNoah ZuaresDavid ZuckerJoshua Zuckerman

Temple UniversityYavapai CollegeWest Chester UniversityUnavailableNew York Unversity ‘15Saint Joseph’s UniversityCornell UniversityColumbia UniversityUniversity of MarylandThreshold Program at Lesley CollegeJuniata CollegeUniversity of PittsburghWest Virginia UniversityTemple UniversityDrexel UniversityUniversity of Massachusetts-AmherstVassar CollegeWashington University in St. LouisPhiladelphia Community CollegeSaint Joseph’s UniversityUnavailableCarnegie Mellon UniversitySaint Joseph’s UniversityDrexel UniversityUnavailableImmaculata UniversityUrsinus CollegeWest Chester UniversityMacalester CollegeWesleyan UniversityNew England ConservatoryDrexel UniversityUniversity of PittsburghUnavailableJohns Hopkins UniversityIthaca CollegeClaremont McKenna CollegeDrexel UniversityHope CollegeTrinity CollegePennsylvania State University-AbingtonContinue Studies at LMHSUniversity of ArizonaNewumann UniversityPennsylvania State University-BrandywineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPrinceton UniversityDrexel UniversityLock Haven UniversityUniversity of PittsburghOberlin CollegeUrsinus CollegeUniversity of VirginiaUniversity of Massachusetts-AmherstUniversity of PittsburghUnavailableUnavailableLaguna College of Art and DesignUniversity of PittsburghHamilton CollegeTemple University ‘15Duke UniversityDelaware County Community CollegeTemple UniversityDallas UniversityUnavailableMontgomery County Community CollegeBinghamton UniversityUniversity of VermontMuhlenberg UniversityUniversity of Colorado-BoulderUniversity of PennsylvaniaWashington University in St. LouisDrexel UniversityWashington University in St. LouisUniversity of Pennsylvania

The editors of The Merionite offer our sincere regrets to anyone not mentioned in this year’s Matriculation list. We wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors.

June 8, 2010

The MerioniteS8

Seniors 2010

Jordan Wolf

Savor the memories, for they’ll fly by

Well here we are. Or are we? It’s more likely that most of us are there, thinking about what’s for dinner, what’s on TV tonight, what we could, should, or would like to be doing.

That’s where my issue with Lower Merion comes in, and it’s not so much about the school, but about our student body. We’re obsessed. It doesn’t matter if we’re out on smoker’s row skipping gym or cramming in the library until we go cross-eyed. We’ve all got this sickness and it’s sucking us dry. But what is this illness that blinds us to the life around us, that turns our tongues black as complaints spill from our lips?

We’re never here. We’re shadows of our-selves, constantly craving the next big thing.

How many times have we heard: “I can’t wait ‘til this test is out of the way, ‘til American Idol comes on, ‘til I’m in college.” How many times have we said it ourselves? The present

moment is never good enough. If we’re in math we’d rather be at lunch and if we’re at lunch, we’d really rather be at home. Each Monday starts the countdown to Friday and each Sunday night we wallow in our back-to-school blues.

Is there a magic cure-all for our situation, a little blue pill that sends us down a rabbit hole of salvation? No. Unfortunately, staying present takes a little work and it isn’t always easy.

But what if we try unplugging ourselves from our computers and iPods (yes, every-thing is wireless, but mentally unplug)? Let’s shut down the computer and put it away, hide it in the base- ment where we can’t be tempt- ed to stalk our friend’s cous- in’s sister on Facebook. Let’s turn off the cellphone and cut the umbili-cal cord that links us to everyone we know and then some.

Without all the technology weighing us down, we’re free to be human again, to be kids again. We can hop in the car and drive aimlessly, stick our heads out the window and let the wind wash us clean. Or we can just go outside, lie down in the grass, and breath, maybe even turning up the corners of our mouths and laughing deeply. It’s okay. We’re allowed to be crazy and enjoy life, right here, right now, as it is in this moment.

Of leaks and legacy

Kara WertheimerEver since construction began on LM,

every local stranger I talk to tells me how sorry they are for me that I won’t get to experience the new building. I quickly tell them that I’m not sorry at all and that I’m actually overjoyed to be the last graduating class of the old building. Although the class of 2010 may have been deprived of the fancy amenities the new building will boast, I’d gladly give that up for the history and tradition of this soon to be destroyed structure. So what that we had to deal with crum-bling ceilings and constant leaks? In my opinion that is a small price to pay for what we did get to experience, such

as shaking our booties as freshman on the stage of the main gym and sitting on the platform in the cafeteria as seniors. These traditions were a part of the old building, just as the yellowing walls and the engraved science tables were. These flaws added character and gave the school a personality that no new building will ever be able to replicate.

I sincerely hope that next year the classes that follow will be able to bring some of the old spirit over into the new building. Lower Merion High School has always been recognized as a school of excellence and that is not just be-cause of its academic standards. It’s be-cause anyone who enters feels the sense of community that surrounds every student. Even if you choose not to get involved, you are part of the Aces, and most school don’t foster that attitude. I was lucky enough to get involved in many organizations throughout my four years, which is probably why I am find-ing it so hard to leave behind LMHS and advance on to the new chapter in my life. I take comfort in the fact that LM kids are proud of their spirit and even if traditions change, they will never die.

So, please don’t pity the Class of 2010 for missing out on the new building! I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are proud to graduate with the legacy and memories of the old building.

Lexi Miller-Gollub

“We’re shadows of ourselves, constantly craving the next big

thing.”

Not only was senior year by far the most incredible year of my life but it was also the quickest. In the last month I’ve heard so many people say, “I remember when

I was just a freshman. It felt like yesterday.” Even though high school has flown by, it will always be a time that I’ll remember. Being

done with school hasn’t exactly hit me yet but, here are my thoughts. High School is like nothing you will ever encounter in your life. There is no other time where people of

a given community get to wake up every single morning and spend 6 hours with each other 5 days a week. When school is over you will obviously see your clos-est friends but, the ones you don’t see so much outside of school will be almost forgotten.

What I noticed most about senior year was how connected our grade became as a whole. As senior year got closer and closer to ending, my grade got closer and closer as well. Now that it’s over that camaraderie is weakening which is pretty sad.

Sports were a big part of my life at Lower Merion. My high school sports career is close to ending. However, I am going to play lacrosse next year so it’s not like I’ll be done with sports but it will not be the same. There is something to be said about a team of players winning and representing the community they were all raised in. Coach Fadely used to always touch upon teams being a family and looking out for one another. There is no other time in your life where you will feel that type of bond and as I continue with my sports career next year, it won’t be the same.

Everyone always says that they can’t wait to be done with school and how they can’t wait to go to college. However, I am telling you right now that you will miss high school so don’t rush too fast to get out of here. I wish I could go back—I already miss so many people I used to see every day. I am bored out of my mind sitting at home and wish I had another year to spend with them all.

To Bully, Wow, Rose, Lemonick, McKenna, Stoosh, Hank, Rachel and your girls, and everyone I missed, make sure you guys have a really great year next year and go really really hard.

“What I noticed most about senior year was how connected our grade

became as a whole.”

Chris TurtonLower Merion has been a smooth

and easy trail for me as a student. First coming in at the age of 14 I was both naïve and ignorant of what to come. Entering into this school I was under the influence that the teachers were the scariest people and did not care about you, but boy was I wrong! The faculty and coaches make i t their job to make sure that you are as happy as possible. On top of being happy, sports definitely softens your fall into high school.

A l l o f o u r a t h l e t i c p r o g r a m s combine kids who may have a lot of friends with those who don’t have

many and builds a community out-side of just academics. Personally, from doing sports I felt that I knew everyone because kids from differ-ent grades participated in the same activities as I did. I couldn’t have enjoyed my stay at Lower Merion anymore than I did especially fresh-man year.

F r e shman yea r i s a lways t he hardest for kids because they have a hard time adjusting to the new atmosphere and times. Contrary to belief freshman year is the easiest because the teachers focus more on your transitioning into adulthood than workload. The same applies in junior year: I was focusing so much on how I was going to apply for college and taking the SAT/ACT’s that my teachers would understand sometimes that homework wasn’t always the first priority.

Senior year couldn’t have been anymore fun because once you get accepted into college you can sit back, relax and be happy that you were accepted into college. Now that I’m currently working on my senior project and will be departing from Lower Merion shortly, I can truly say that I enjoyed my stay and if I had a chance to relive any of it, I would in a heartbeat.

In a heartbeat

To be human again: living in the now

June 8, 2010

Seniors 2010S9

The places from where you come impact who you are. This sentiment seems simple, especial-ly in the midst of graduation speeches and high

school good-byes. In these mo-ments, ev-

eryone seems to be talking about how high school in general or Lower Merion in

particular has shaped them. But in all honesty, the power of the places you live and the people within those places are

much more complex than we sometimes admit. The places we live and the people we know

inhabit us. It is never simply a matter of ge-ography. They instill within us the unspoken norms of what is valued or despised, what is worth a struggle or lost without care, what is memorialized or forgotten. In ways we don’t always know or recognize, these places and people cast into relief details of our lives. They keep us in touch with the people we used to be and shape the people we become.

Those people are complex and varied, even within single individuals. No person is simply one “type.” Walt Whitman describes this as “be-ing large” and “containing multitudes.” George Lamming describes this as being comfortable “in the castle of your skin.” In Light in August, William Faulkner describes identity shaped by

space as “of itself alone serene, of itself alone triumphant.” Carolyn Forsche describes the em-brace of this complexity as the choice between “ourselves and nothing.” We are never one es-sentialized self. While you have shared expe-riences with friends and classmates, you never take away the same understandings as the per-son sitting next to you. So there is something wildly social and deeply personal about the four years you have spent together in this common space of Lower Merion High School. How you have made sense of those experiences and the many ways you see yourself in light of those experiences shapes you.

In this vein, I think about my own experienc-es with the power of place to impact identity. I think about growing up in a small town in the old coal region of Pennsylvania, a town two hours and a world away from Lower Merion. Where I grew up crafted my character in indelible ways. Some of these ways are incredibly posi-tive. Others are not. But this is the great gift of any graduation and commencement; endings and beginnings offer the opportunity to reflect and make sense of the people we have become and the places we have been. It allows us to take with us the best parts of ourselves and our pasts in ways we would not otherwise be able to do. Perhaps even more importantly, it allows us to

take those “not so best parts” and learn from them. I wish each member of this class this sense of

life-sustaining memory and

character creation that comes from remember-ing the people you used to be and the places you used to know.

This is why it is essential that you never al-low yourself to be narrowly constructed as a person. To be one thing obscures the beautiful, albeit risky, complexity of who we are. I hope that you embrace both beauty and risk as you leave Lower Merion, as you become the men and women you were meant to be.

Leslie PrattEnglish

Power in places and people

The Merionite

The above quotation opens the Epilogue of 2010: Od-yssey Two, by Arthur C. Clarke, a National Bestseller of mythical proportions within the world of science fic-

tion. Conceived and written during the years 1964 – 1968, C la rke ’s p reque l 2001: A Space Od-yssey ponders the gravitational field of Jupiter in an effort to d iscover more about the planet . Ironically, this same fictional tactic was employed by the Vo y a g e r s p a c e probes in 1979. We never envis ioned in the 1960s that an explorat ion of the moons of Jupiter would reside fifteen years in the future.

We also never envisioned that Man’s exploration of the cosmos within a literary tradition would predate Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon in 1969. We certainly never imagined that Clarke’s creative Mind would craft an explosion of the oxygen tank within the Command Module (aka Odyssey) into his plot structure and HAL, the Command Module’s fictional computer, would declare, “Sorry to interrupt the festivities, but we have a problem.” This fictional explosion and declaration precedes the real explosion aboard the real spacecraft Odyssey on April 13, 1970, when the real astronaut, Jack Swigert, during the Apollo 13 mission declares, “Hey, we’ve got a problem here” and the real astronaut and mission commander James Lovell repeats to Mission Control, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Despite the onboard explosion and the failed lunar landing in the Apollo 13 mission, the crew of three highly qualified , precision-intensive and imaginative astronauts landed safely on Earth, April 17, 1970, and galvanized lunar exploration.

Therefore, Imagination can breathe life into Reality; Life imitates Art; Nature imitates Art; History and Fiction interlace; and the Mind can invent History! Each of you owns a kernel, a seed of knowledge that makes you distinc-tive. As high school graduates, you launch your new status as “farmers in the fields of stars;” cultivating your dreams becomes a vital rite of passage. As you till the soil of your Mind seeking to make the invisible somehow visible, you will begin to understand that the kernel/seed planted in autumn germinates during the winter, sprouts new life in the spring and bears fruit in the summer. Sometimes, the harvest is bitter; sometimes, the harvest is sweet; but the labor is imperative! Fieldwork renders a degree of un-certainty; the weeds of doubt, indecision and apathy may appear spontaneously and shift the meaning and value of the labor. Weeds destroy the fruit by extracting essential nutrients from the soil.

Astronauts and Writers and Seeds, OH MY! Okay, here’s the connection. As the odyssey of life continues to unfold, nourish the soul of your Mind. Remember that reaching for your dreams is labor intensive; remember that you possess the power to change history. Finally, when you savor the labor and give reverence to the voyage rather than the destination, you achieve a leadership moment , which allows you to unite the stars with the earth.

Debora HobbsEnglish

...And because, in all the galaxy, they had found nothing more pre-cious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped.

And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.

“

”

Imagination can breathe life into reality

A passion unlike any other“I love Lower Merion.”What is this, 1965? The Beatles are huge, and the Beach Boys are bigger than Dylan? A relic

of a phrase, captured in the opening of a brand new Lower Merion School? I don’t know as much about any of those times, even as a History teacher. I do know that these words are from this year, from a member of this senior class and in my mind they reveal quite a bit of the joy that the class of 2010 brought to my daily experiences with so many of its members over the past four years. Optimism, but not misplaced. Balance, between intense devotion to school work and passion for things student-run and Dawg Pound loud. To make the best of school life in half a building, to anticipate eagerly the experiences of their younger classmates in a new school building that they themselves will nevertheless not be present to enjoy speaks volumes about the collected personalities of this group of seniors.

“ I love Lower Merion.”Well stated.Thanks, folks. I am privileged to know you from the

classroom and from afternoons devoted to theatre. I look forward to meeting more of you upon your return to LM as a graduate. You are all defining elements of my life as a teacher. Good luck. Peace.John Grace

History

“While you have shared experiences with friends and classmates, you never take away the same understandings as

the person sitting next to you.”

Read additional teacher reflections online at www.merionite.org

Congratulations and Good Luck

Class of 2010!

The Count is In:Most popular schools for the Class of 2010

By

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InternationalUAE- 1Israel- 4Canada- 1Scotland- 1Graphic by Matt Rublin & Noah Zuares/Staff

Oh the Places You’ll GoWhere seniors will reside next year

Graphic by Matt Rublin & Noah Zuares/Staff

Pittsburgh- 28Temple- 19Penn State- 18UPenn-13Drexel-13Michigan-11