Oh God infinite wisdom and the source of all knowledge Grant that we may remember what we have learnt We offer you our works and endeavours, our failures and successes

Forgive us for our shortcomings and give us the courage to follow always the path of truth.

This very prayer ends each school day at St Xaviers, Jawalakhel. On February 25, Friday, for the last time in their lives, some seventy students of class ten uttered their final prayers as students in the school. For the past few years, the students had been regularly entering the hallowed gates of the school, some of them even throughout the past decade.

This batch of students, who are just finishing their school lives, has a special significance since it consists of the last batch of students from St Xaviers, Godavari, to have attended Jawalakhel for their high school studies. This marks the end of an era, but the legacy of Xavierians still prevails with each year new students making the school grounds their second home.

The farewell dinner was organised on March 26, last Saturday to bid goodbye to the students as well as to give away best boy awards to the outstanding students from classes six to ten. With the farewell dinner also having been organised, class ten students have officially departed from the school. But, this doesn’t mean that the relationships between the students and the school have ended. This chapter in our schooling careers spells new duties and responsibilities towards the school. Students have learned to become more fully who they are and that is what we, the students, love about this institution: it allows students to come to the fullest development of their potential and that’s what life does. In simple words, this institution has taught us to be who we are.

Our teachers have taught us all the techniques we need to embrace a bright and beautiful future, and now with this, we must face the world waiting our arrival.

The question now for all of us, the outgoing students, is how do we go from where we are to where we want to be? I don’t think there is a universal answer to this question, but I do think that we can find an answer for yourself once you understand that eventhough life may appear to be the highest mountain, you can walk over it taking one step at a time. Each day our life stretches ahead of ourselves waiting to be exploited, and there we are, the people who get to do the exploitation.

What we must remember, however, is that sometimes we’ll be on top of the world, sometimes we’ll be at the bottom, and sometimes we’ll simply float along. The clock is ticking, time is fleeting and nobody lives forever. But true friendship is something we can count on never dying. Friendship has been the most important part of our school years that we cherish the most. People who go in and out of our lives influence the paths that we choose to follow. We all aspire toward individual goals of who we want to be and what we want to accomplish. Yet, incredibly, there is so much more that the world holds for each and every one of us.

As young adults we, the youth, have the opportunity to make a difference. Not only for ourselves, but for all the others living in this place we are proud to call our nation. Believe me, we can accomplish so much with our minds and touch so many people with our hearts, it is all worth a try. It’s all up to us. There is so much talent in everyone; I bet that it’s not the first time you read this. I hope everybody truly realises that. We the youth have so many gifts in so many areas, and the extent of what we can attain is immense. So, let’s go and make the most of them. Not as a Xavierian, but as a youth of the country I suggest everyone to create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe. Another aspect in life that we should be aware about is that we should live and work for what we have to do today and not worry about what we have to do tomorrow until tomorrow gets here. And finally, what teachers do is for our sake, what we do is for our benefit as well as for the school’s pride and what the schools do is for the whole country and its people; so do all you can to help the students.

— Ankit Rimal, Class X, St Xaviers School, Jawalakhel