When Sommer Thomas ’17, Addie Model ’17, Mariam Abdelhaq ’17 and I decided to spend a weekend at the beach together the summer after graduating college we had no idea how important we were about to become to each other. Although we talked sporadically after graduating from D-E, we had not been best friends. After that beach trip, adulthood hit each of us in different ways; Sommer moving far away from home for a new job that brought her challenges and great triumphs at the University of Kentucky – Lexington and then Duke University; Addie graduating from Smith, working as a librarian, and ultimately becoming a grant-writer for Greater Bergen Community Action; I failing really epically for the first time in Buffalo, NY, then choosing to pursue my Masters, and finally ending up back where I belong, at D-E; and Mariam fighting for her life and never shying away from what that really means. We grew up in big ways together these past 3 years, and I would not have been able to do it without them. Talking to them every week is my safe place, it is constancy in a world that can be deeply chaotic. I am so lucky that high school was a place that we could have all been together, but I am even more grateful that we could be best friends to each other out in the adult world – diverse and distant as we may be.
Patricia (Pat) Russell Dwight ’61
I am what has been called a “Lifer”, having started at Dwight at 3-1/2 years old in Pre-primary, (Mrs. van Wyk was our teacher) as did several other graduating classmates of mine. We went all the way through our elementary, middle, and high school years together at...