There’s a patch of dirt as you turn the corner on the paved path to the Student Center - it’s a place where there should be grass, but it’s just dirt because many people, in their hurried hustle and bustle, cut across it. Everyday, as I walk back and forth from lunch or getting the college mail, I call across to those who are about to take that short cut. Many students have gotten my lecture - “this is a metaphor for your life! Where else are you taking short cuts?” I feel that if that patch of dirt were to grow back its grass, that would mean that we as a community have made a conscious decision to not take short cuts in our lives. I’ve seen it done before - there used to be a long path connecting the road to the front door of the Student Center - but we made a commitment and no one now walks across the grass. What was a deeply trodden path is now gone.

The seniors have come up against the wall of what cutting corners can mean in their own lives and their academic experience. Individually and collectively, each student is recognizing the amount to which they personally rely on short cuts and how much this is an area of their own lives they need to reevaluate. The extent to which we choose to move beyond the temptation to make our lives “easier” depends on recognizing what the cost of “easier” is? How fundamental is the idea of my own integrity to me? All humans wrestle with their deepest conscience on a moment to moment basis - but, oh how easy is it to justify and assuage that pang of doubt - “should I?” - thus are born excuses and defensiveness when integrity is called into question: ‘I had too much work, I didn’t have enough time, I didn’t know, it’s not my fault.’ Today, the seniors have had the chance to call themselves to this task of choosing - what does their integrity in academics mean to them, and if they are making excuses - what needs to change in order to be the people they want others to believe in and trust. ‘Did I not use my time efficiently? Did I wonder what the right thing to was, but followed the crowd instead of questioning? Did I make a decision because I was afraid what would happen to my grade if I didn’t? Do I make excuses?’

People think I’m pretty silly when I stop the crowd and have a teaching moment on the path every day - “Oh, that’s just Mrs. Cavalli again!” But what would happen in all areas of our community and our lives if we used that corner as the standard by which we are each choosing to make a conscious decision to not cut corners anywhere? If Brother’s Keeper meant helping each other not take short cuts? Can we do it? Can a senior, faced with too much reading, 5 papers and college applications, figure out a way to do it the right way, not the short cut way? I believe so - and with the conversation that’s begun with individuals and the senior class, I think the momentum is building and it’s time we tried to get the grass back.