The following talk was delivered by Robert Strang (’12) to the Loyola community as part of Ignatian Awareness Day, March 11, 2011. “A Loyola student is becoming more Loving.”
I walked through the doors at Loyola School as a freshman two and a half years ago in September. I was excited, nervous, a little bit scared, but most of all hopeful. Hopeful about the next four years, the people that I would meet, the things I would learn, and the friends that I would make. Well, I stand here before you today a bit wiser, a little taller, possibly more mature, and with a number of good friends that I have made. When my family and I were searching for a high school, I had heard many things about Loyola that interested me, including that it is a small, nurturing, tight-knit community. This was very important to me and one of the many of the reasons that I chose Loyola. What I found to be true is that it is also a very “loving” place. One aspect of the “Loving Grad at Grad” is “having personally experienced support from members of the school community.” I think that every member of the Loyola Community in one way or another has experienced this depiction of loving, and I think that many members of the community have a knack for truly showing their love to others. An example of someone who has shown me loving support in the Loyola community is Mr. Joseph. Mr. Joseph had been my biology teacher my freshman year, and was mentor and chemistry teacher through my sophomore year. During my sophomore year there was a tragic event that took place in my life which affected me for the whole year; with the help of Mr. Joseph, though, I managed to get through it. This catastrophic event was chemistry class. I was horrible at Chemistry and had absolutely no interest in the subject. And as many of my teachers
and peers know, I am a student who truly learns through one-on-one interaction, which, as I stated before, was why Loyola was such a great match for me. I, like many others, would attend Mr. Joseph’s office hours to try and further be able to comprehend what was going on in the class. I would set my alarm back all the way to 7:15 to make it to school early to attend these sessions, but not everyone lives three blocks from Loyola. Mr. Joseph was one of those people who does not live so close to Loyola. He would wake up hours before I would, often to see just a single student before school started because he wanted what was best for that student. To add on to this selfless act, the days when he would see students would very often not even be his office hours days. These acts represented Mr. Joseph’s caring about us as students and showed his interest in our success in academics. However I would soon learn that Mr. Joseph did not just care for me as a chemistry student, but also as a mentee. One morning, before I had awoken, my mother received a phone call. She rushed into my room at the all too early hour to reveal to me that Mr. Joseph had called to remind me I had… “Mentor Mass”. Mr. Joseph calling all of his mentees to make sure we would show up to mass was a demonstration of his caring for us not only as students or mentees, but as people and as a community. He wanted us all to be together and pray together not only for our own good, but for that of the entire mentor group as well. Mr. Joseph isn’t the only teacher who has shown support to other members of the community to make them more loving, the same could be said of all of our coaches and moderators who give so much time to our sports and activities in addition to all of the classes they teach. Through my time here at Loyola, teachers like Mr. Joseph have truly shown me support and have helped shape me into a more loving individual.
A Loyola student who is loving has made specific contributions to build school community. When I first came to Loyola I was surrounded by seven friends from my old school, Saint Ignatius. During freshman orientation, the eight of us had managed to squeeze into a single table in the Commons. We were content, we felt we had a strong community, and we were glad we had each other when everyone else looked so lost. As we sat there feeling comfortable and relaxed with one another, Ms. Baber came over smiling and shaking her head. She suggested to us that we might want to make some new friends, and that the time had come to stand up and find someone else to sit with, someone with whom we were all about to spend the next four years. Looking back on this series of events, I realize that what I thought was a “small strong community”, was actually more the banding together of a group of outsiders. The real school community was created when we went forth and found new those new friends. At this time in my life, I was nervous and excited, but most of all awkward. I wanted to make a good first impression; I wanted to be friendly with everyone but not too friendly, and the idea of being somewhere in between can often have horrible outcomes. I remember having “schola brevis”, a quick introduction to all of my new classes. I was confused about where to go but then found myself saved by a newfound friend. Paul Choix and I eventually found ourselves in the Library. I began feeling more and more comfortable. We spoke about Mr. Hanley’s unbelievable resemblance to Harvey Dent from the Dark Knight, and then I proceeded to attempt to spell Choix for about five minutes. I then found myself in my new Biology class, talking with Drew Roberts about Call of Duty 4, and then speaking with James Robinson on the issue of Mac vs. PC, and so on. I started to realize that I had been graced with a grade full of people who were
interesting and loving. In the beginning, I felt nervous to enter a new community, but when push came to shove, the people around me made it easy for me to be myself. A Loyola student who is loving has personally experienced God’s love. Throughout my life I have had many experiences in which I have experienced God’s love, but perhaps the most significant was the miracle that occurred during the critical illness of my oldest brother. When I was young, my oldest brother, Brendan, went into a coma and the doctors did not know if he would survive or ever walk again. I was very confused at the time. Even though it was my brother Brendan who was critically ill, it affected each and every member of our family profoundly. My mother went from being home every day with me and my middle brother, Kevin, to living in the hospital with my oldest brother for many months; this devastating illness had traumatized our family. It was a time when I relied on Kevin for guidance, and our relationship grew closer and closer over the next few months. My mother and father were scared and had to make a lot of very difficult choices about my brother’s health care. The thing that truly got our family through this was the power of prayer and God’s love. When faced with unbearable choices, there was nothing left to do but put Brendan in the hands of God. Our family was blessed with wonderful friends and relatives to support my brother in their prayers. They say some good always comes out of bad, and through this experience I learned how the power of God’s love can get you through anything. Thinking about my experiences at Loyola and in my personal life, the one thing that I can say for sure is that life is definitely a journey. It is a journey of ups and downs, incredible joys and sorrows, uncertainty, and all sorts of feelings, including love. It is the love of family, friends, community, and the love of God, which defines us all. Thank you.