SALUTATORIAN
MARIELLE THOMAS
Marielle Thomas, a graduate of Andrew Carnegie Middle School, was chosen by her classmates to give the Salutatory address. During her time at St. Francis, she was a member of the SF A Capella Blue Skirts Group, Latin Club, and Certamen team member. In addition to her extracurricular pursuits, she is an active member in 4-H, receiving numerous awards for her projects, presentations and leadership. Her love of 4H has inspired her to be an Agricultural Business major at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The following is Marielle’s salutatory address given at the Commencement Ceremony for the Class of 2021.
Four years ago I walked through the brick walls onto the campus of St. Francis High School. This was a day I had been looking forward to for ages. I was a little terrified, very nervous, but overall incredibly excited. A new chapter had begun. I entered through the gym foyer, where all the freshmen were dropped off unless you had a cool upperclassmen carpool situation worked out. We all wore matching polos and our skirts were below our knees. We were bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to meet new people and make some memories. The first day of freshman year we wore matching St. Francis uniforms. Today we stand together in matching graduation gowns. My experience at St. Francis has been nothing short of a wild ride, and I want to revisit some stories and things I learned over the past four years. Freshman year we were ready. Brand new backpacks stuffed with every color pen you could think of, and labeled folders and binders to match. We were nervous that year, trying to figure out which activities we were the most interested in, and where we fit in as a Troubadour. After maybe a hundred visits to Mr. Poggi’s office to remember our locker combinations, we started to get the hang of it. It was this year when we were introduced to a sisterhood unlike any other. I remember one day I was walking through the halls and I dropped my backpack. It was unzipped, and so all the previously mentioned binders, folders, and pens spilled all over the floor blocking the corridor pathway. Girls I had never met before stopped what they were doing and helped me clean up. Two minutes until class started, and they helped me clean up my school supplies. This was when I was first exposed to the most valuable element of sisterhood. We serve each other. And by serving each other, we can foster the love and passion to serve the world around us. Sophomore year we started to get a little more comfortable. We weren’t freshmen anymore, and so we felt like real high schoolers. Our only personality trait was that we got our drivers license, and made sure everyone knew it. I can still hear the giant lanyards jingling and clanking against water bottles 12
as we strutted around campus. And I can still remember seeing everyone’s keys always sticking a little bit out of their backpack’s side pocket. One of my favorite memories from this year was our class ring mass. A special mass just for us where our rings were blessed to bind us forever. That was the day my Instagram feed was overrun with ring emojis, and I’ll never forget it. Whenever I look at my ring, I feel a connection to the class of 2021, and I find comfort in the blessing that has been placed on it. It grounds me in love and reminds me to have faith in myself, in my sisters, and in God. Junior year was a year for the books--literally. We were taking hard classes, attending extracurriculars, and in our free time we tried to study for the dreaded SATs and ACTs. Those who did well on those standardized tests were crushed that colleges went test blind, others (me) were relieved. Our lives were engulfed in school. It was a constant cycle of: learn the material, study for six hours at the nearest coffee shop, study a little more in your car before school, take the test, get a B if you’re lucky, repeat. It all seemed impossible, but we did it. It was during this year that we started to establish ourselves at St. Francis. We started to become the girl we wanted to be when we were freshman. We became leaders on campus in our classes, clubs, and sports. One of my favorite memories is when we won first place in spirit during homecoming week. When we won I was surprised for just a second, but then I realized why we won. We won because we were the leading examples of sportsmanship, class unity, and hard work during the week. I’m so proud to be part of a class that has taken these ideals farther than just spirit week, and been positive leaders in our school and community. As I think about senior year, I am reminded of something comedian, Gilda Radner, once said: “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity”. No one
