The game starts and the Varsity Girl’s Basketball team is running, the ball is flying back and forth across the court and the scoreboard is rapidly changing. In the stands everyone is standing and screaming Go Toads! The atmosphere is electric; study hall may be starting soon, but for now we’re living in the moment, hoping the Toads will pull ahead, cheering for our friends, and school.

To me being surrounded by other students, watching guys who we watched play earlier cheering for the girls, or watching the girl who is singing tomorrow night race across the court–all this is Thacher wrapped up in a bow. The talents of individual students, the support of friends, and the feeling of happiness that washes over you as your best friend shoots a basket. Or the fact that the very next night, you can run around the gym barefoot shooting hoops your formal dinner dress swirling around you, as your friends pass the ball back and forth. The perfect night before you leave.

I look back on my first few months at Thacher and see an endless stretch of these events that have happened in the past and that will happen in my next few years at Thacher and I know I’ve made the right choice to come to this school nestled a hidden secret in the valley where the sunsets are pink and the friendships last forever.