Open to Growth - Ms. Perby Senal, '15

Grad at Grad -- Open To Growth Perby Senal, ‘15 This talk was delivered by senior, Perby Senal, as an address to the school at morning assembly on Friday, May 10, 2015.

I’m going to be completely honest here: when Ms. Baber first asked me if I consider myself “Open to Growth”, my first thought was, “Of course I’m open to growth, maybe then I could finally go on all of the rides at Six Flags. Or maybe even reach my locker!” But, as I am sure everyone in this gym has realized, becoming more open to growth has little to do with physical growth and almost everything to do with becoming more mature. In the interest of time, since I know no one wants to miss their first period class, I’ll only touch upon the basics.

In my opinion, the hardest thing about becoming more Open to Growth is that growth implies change, and as a result, you have to admit that there are some things about yourself that need changing. I’m not a perfect person, nor will I ever be one, because they don’t exist.

But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t strive to be the best possible version of myself at any given time. Being Open to Growth means constantly learning from our experiences and developing into better people. Therefore, it is a lifelong journey with no clear ending. This is great, because if everyone remained the same person that we were in middle school, the world be a terrifying place.

Speaking of terrifying middle schoolers, when I was in the eighth grade I was pretty awful. I was selfish, rude, and frankly, kind of obnoxious. Then I came to Loyola. Here, I was forced to re-examine my attitudes through the Christian Service Program.

I’ve been doing my service work at the St. Cabrini Nursing Home since my sophomore year, and to be quite honest, I completely hated it at first. My job is to transport residents in wheelchairs to and from Mass which can get pretty difficult. A lot of the residents are hard of hearing and always end up shouting because they don’t realize how loud they are. The

wheelchairs themselves are also pretty heavy, and since I’m not the strongest person in the room, it can get pretty tiring. So if the work was so terrible, why did I stay for so long? I remained at St. Cabrini partially because I didn’t want to find a new placement, but also because the people there showed me so much love and compassion, even when I didn’t do anything to deserve it.

For example, there’s a resident named Carmen, and every time I see her, she always wheels herself over to me to give me a hug and some candy, which automatically makes her one of my favorite people. But what’s striking about Carmen, is that she still shows me kindness even when I’m in a bad mood and don’t want to be spending two hours doing Christian Service.

Her generous and warm nature challenged my self-centered notions and inspired me to be more patient and gentle to the people around me. I’m more likely to listen to people when they come to me with a problem, and though I’m not exactly the greatest at expressing my feelings, I do try to convey to my friends that I care about them by helping them with their homework and sharing all of the candy I “steal” from Ms. McDermott’s office.

Sometimes, however, the benefits of an experience aren’t obvious until much, much later.

When I was a freshman, Father Sehler asked me to speak to the incoming freshmen at the Class of 2016 reception about why they should study Latin. I agreed without much thought to it, because I figured I could think of a few reasons and be done with it. The night of the reception came and I had no prepared statement, only a vague idea of what I wanted to say. Still, I was confident in my abilities and reassured Father Sehler that I had everything under control. When it was my turn to speak, I approached the podium, looked into the crowd, and forgot everything that I had prepared. What followed comprised probably the most embarrassing two minutes of my life. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I do remember saying something along the lines of “Latin is an art.” Slightly poetic, but not at all helpful.

My immediate reaction to the entire situation was to pretend that it never happened, and that’s what I did for about two years. Fast forward to junior year, however, and I was running for student government. My campaign was going well until I remembered that all candidates had to give speeches in front of the entire school. I genuinely considered backing out, but I had already told people that I was running. I was even handing out candy! I was too far gone. As I tried to come up with an effective excuse that would get me out of the election, the date for speeches crept up on me. One day, however, I had an epiphany. Sure I had a terrible record when it came to addressing the school, but I had something embarrassing happen to me before and I still survived. That knowledge gave me the courage to face the school. On the day of speeches, I was still incredibly nervous but I powered through without any major incidents. Not only did I learn from my past mistakes but I also did something that scared me and in the end, it all turned out okay.

In this world, the occasions that inspire us to become a better person won’t always be the huge, Earth-shattering events that we see in movies. Often, it’s the quiet moment, the little things that we might take for granted that end up having the biggest impact. It could be as simple as a friendly interaction, showing kindness to a stranger, or in my case, giving candy to a grumpy volunteer and agreeing to speak in front of 200 people. But for these instances to make a difference, we have to realize their potential and be open to changing our lives.

I’m going off to college in the fall, and while the prospect of leaving the safety and comfort of Loyola is slightly terrifying, I’m also kind of excited. I’ve grown so much since I’ve arrived at Loyola and I still have much to learn after I leave it. Everyone here is on a similar yet uniquely individual journey to becoming their best selves and thus I leave you all with two simple words: Good luck.

Thank you.