The following is the prepared text of the address delivered by Will Bryant ’25, senior class president, at Kenyon’s 197th Commencement on May 17, 2025.
Good morning graduates,
I’ve struggled for a while with what I should say because nothing I was thinking of felt like a goodbye that would do our class justice. I really can’t believe we’re all here today to celebrate the last four years of late night library sessions, early morning Peirce breakfasts (if you were in the lucky few who made it), and finding rocks from Middle Path in our shoes. When we all came together as freshmen, the Kenyon we saw was, in many ways, not the Kenyon we see today. We’ve definitely been through a lot together. We’ve seen a loss of both Moxie and D-Cat, two cats in one summer; the inauguration of a new president; the closing of Chilitos and the opening of Flats; the end of the lords and ladies with the slow transition towards getting an actual mascot; a true transformation of the physical campus (I can’t say I’ll miss the construction waking me up at 7 in the morning every day); and countless other small and large shifts to the campus that have bonded us as a group of people with these shared memories.
I remember the night before I left for Kenyon, when I was experiencing anxiety only matched by what I’ve felt this past week inching closer to graduation, I opened up a fortune cookie in my going away dinner that said, “You will soon move to a wonderful new home.” I know they’re kind of written to always be relatable, but if that wasn’t a sign I didn’t know what was. With this, I found the courage to embrace everything Kenyon had to offer. No matter how scared I was, I was leaving for college the next day and, well, the fortune said it would be OK. Looking at you all today, knowing you’re the same people I met that first week of orientation, I can see that you all have done the same. Kenyon as an institution encourages intellectual growth, and asking questions, and all of the classic promises of a liberal arts education you would expect. But along with that, Kenyon in the people it attracts acts as a place for us to grow, to be friends, to act on what we believe in, and really how to be the people we dreamed we might be when we entered.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared for what the future has in store for us. None of us can know what’s coming. What I do know is that when we all leave today, all we will be leaving is a space. The people who have shaped the last four years, who have pushed us, challenged us, celebrated us, and embraced us for who we are are not going anywhere.
Because today, even though I said I can’t believe it, we really are graduating, and things really are going to dramatically change, and I’m also going to get a boxed lunch after this because it will be time for that as it is time for this. With every fear I have, I know that the lessons we have learned over the past four years, formally from our professors and informally from each other, have equipped us to not only survive but thrive in whatever the future looks like. Thank you everyone, I can't wait to see what the future holds.