Just as many people view the first week of January as a chance to initiate New Year’s resolutions, for Williston students the turn of the calendar year also marks an important transition. Seniors, a number of whom have solidified future college plans, begin the march towards graduation, one that may seem distant from their present vantage but nonetheless comes strikingly quickly—a changing of seasons as rapid as the New England transition from winter to spring. Juniors, on the other hand, begin the college search journey (with a program hosted by our College Counseling Office in February that features deans of admissions from Middlebury College, Washington & Jefferson, and the University of Vermont), and our tenth and ninth graders continue to discover subjects and areas of passion, and to build upon them. In other words, life at Williston goes on, following a timeless pattern.

As I reflect on my year, I am reminded of a quote from Thoreau in which he cautions that education often makes a “straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.” Williston students have always exalted in the freedom of individual expression and eschewed conformity, so we have plenty to look forward to for 2011 as we witness our students etching their own indelible paths.