St Josephs College - Footprints Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 14 text:

Fontbonne Hall

Page 16 text:

VALEDICTORY MARY WALSH It is difficult to say good-bye. To say good-bye to you, our college, means we realize at last that we are no longer a part of you. The thought of separation is not new. It has come to us frequently in recent months but it has always been little more than a hazy notion to be passed over lightly, to be dealt with in the future. Now it comes clad in the armor of reality and we cannot escape. Our reluctance at parting, our hesitation in severing the bonds that join us so closely is understandable in the light of all that you have meant to us. We came to you learned in our ignorance, strong in our weakness, sure in our timidity. You led us fearlessly yet not without understanding along the paths of true wisdom and of true goodness. It would be pleasant to remain always, happy in the sur- roundings you have provided for us. We should be merely play- ing at life, however, were we to attempt to prolong any part of it; to substitute for life itself what is a perfect preparation, but only a preparation for it. We realize that our days here have been completed, that we have received our share of encourage- ment, of sympathy and of friendship from you as under- graduates. There are new responsibilities for us to accept, new duties to assume, a new world to enter. Shall we find this new world as livable as that brave new world of college? We hesi- tate to enter: it is a world unknown, and we proceed now unassisted. We cannot take you with us. We must relinquish you to others that they too may obtain what you have bestowed upon us. But we do carry within our hearts the intangible elements of your guidance. With this, we find courage to travel a new road, alone. 12