Strive to Become the Best Version of Yourself

While school officially started this past Wednesday, Friday morning’s Convocation felt like the true beginning of our year together. It’s the first of many times that we gather as one school to celebrate our commitment to character, conduct, scholarship, leadership and service as Severn Admirals. During the morning ceremony, Head of School Doug Lagarde welcomed every student with words to guide attitudes and shape expectations for the year ahead. The following is excerpted from his remarks.

Our Mission as Our Guide

Schools exist to educate and help grow up children and adolescents. But how a school goes about doing this can vary drastically from school to school, giving each a particular culture. Our mission statement provides clues as to how we go about doing this; it’s the ideal toward which we reach. It is our touchstone, and we use it every day to guide our decisions and actions.
Severn School challenges its students to pursue excellence in character, conduct and scholarship, to marshal the courage to lead and to develop the lasting desire to serve and achieve. We believe this is best realized in a community where the adults model these qualities and where each student is known and valued.
Our mission begins with “challenges its students to pursue excellence.” Notice, it does not read, “challenges its students to pursue perfection.” There is a distinct difference between excellence and perfection and, yet, too often, they are used interchangeably. Believe it or not, it is easy to pursue excellence and requires little or no innate talent. On the other hand, it is impossible to achieve perfection and, to be clear, we are not looking for you to do so.

Excellence is a Habit

People are not born excellent. They cultivate it over time through continuous improvement over past performances. It is not a single act, but a habit. Excellence is possible, while perfection is impossible to attain. Excellence paves the way for improvement, while perfection promotes stagnation, limiting one’s creativity and innovation. Excellence tolerates mistakes and failures along the way to achieving it, thus allowing people to explore and experiment.

A quick word about failure. In recent years, failure seems to have become something worthy of pursuit in and of itself. Fail early and fail often as the entrepreneur mantra goes. That’s foolish. Pursue excellence with the understanding that along the way you will experience some failures. Do your utmost best to minimize the impact of those failures by reflecting on your past performances — both failures and successes. A very important aspect of pursuing excellence is reflection. The best learners reflect on what they have done which gives them insight into how to improve.

Here’s the real secret about pursuing excellence; it requires no talent. It requires effort and focus, yes, but not talent. Understand, I’m in no way saying that you are not talented. I'm saying much the opposite, and I hope you have as much faith in your talents as I have in you. But anyone, regardless of age, maturity, or innate talent can pursue excellence. Excellence is a habit that leads to constant improvement and constant growth. In pursuing excellence, every day you become a better version of yourself.

It’s About What You Do Every Day

Here are some behaviors that will help you pursue excellence:
  • Show up and on time
  • Exert maximum effort
  • Have energy
  • Have a positive attitude
  • Be coachable
  • Do the extra thing
  • Be prepared
  • Be kind
  • Have compassion
  • Show gratitude
  • Be honest with yourself and others
  • Treat others with dignity and respect
  • Enter into all conversation with the attitude that you can learn something from this person even if you strongly disagree with them

A bit more on that last point. Too often today, we surround ourselves with people like us — whose views, opinions and prejudices are just like ours. It is too easy to sort ourselves into physical and virtual groups with people with whom we agree and who agree with us. But this fails to promote excellence because you do not grow or learn if you are always surrounded by people like you. It is the people not like you that challenge you, make you think and, in turn, allow you to grow. Make sure you venture out of your like-minded groups, get to know and listen to — not necessarily agree with but actively listen to — the opinions of others.

Finally, the most important secret in pursuing excellence — try things. Make sure you have range and breadth in your life. Trying multiple things is the answer to finding your talents. Don’t live in the “what if I had” space. That is, “What if I had gone out for football, track, or some other sport? What if I had tried mock trial or yearbook or a performing group? What if I had challenged myself to work harder in my courses? What if I had been a kinder friend, a more compassionate classmate?" Trying things allows you to respond to a lived experience with a change of direction, to identify an unexpected goal, to uncover a new talent, or make new and more diverse friends. Trying things, not living in the “what if I had” space, is the hallmark of pursuing excellence.

Be Prepared to Change

Near the end of the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is asked to talk about her adventures, but she insists, "It’s no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then." Pursuing excellence, trying things, and not living in the “what if I had” space changes you. By the end of the year, you will be a different person, and you will likely have a difficult time remembering the person you were today. That new version of yourself will not be perfect, but it will be excellent.

I look forward to helping all of you grow and change this year as we together challenge ourselves to pursue excellence.

Thank you,

Head of School Lagarde
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