the Pebble Spring 2017

Work Hard,
big pic
By Lily Grenis
As the mecca for all seniors, the Student
Lounge is a popular place to relax after class.
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Class of 2017 adds personal touches to traditional Student Lounge appearance
Leftover Chipotle salads, posters of rap preceding MPH, on the right. Though
artists, stray lacrosse sticks, half-empty the seniors have continued or revived
jugs of iced tea, club fliers, Princeton some longstanding Lounge traditions,
Review books, signs for sports teams, such as devoting an entire wall to college
class photos, Syracuse sweatshirts. rejection letters, other sights around the
These items may not seem
room are completely unique to their class.
interconnected, but in the final weeks Many seniors acknowledged the
of the 2016-17 school year, they have all sentimental value of the additions they
found their way into the MPH Student have made, such as photos of themselves
Lounge. Most have been taped, stashed as kids, a map with tacks showing
and scattered throughout the Lounge by where they will attend college next fall
members of the senior class.
and a photo of Anna Barnard, a former
Senior Caroline King explained that, member of the senior class who passed
while the seniors have undertaken a away earlier this school year.
deliberate initiative to personalize the “I see [the wall of decorations]
Lounge in a way that exhibits their close as intimate and a form of bonding,
class bond and the memories they have and it has pictures from all our years
shared together, miscellaneous artifacts of here at MPH, so it’s also memorabilia,
life as an MPH high school student have and as seniors reflecting on our MPH
had just as significant a presence.
experience, I think it makes us more
“I feel like what comes into the grateful for what we have now,” said
Lounge oftentimes just stays in the Student Council President Annie Weiss.
Lounge,” King said.
Despite these benefits, the Lounge
The Lounge has been a unique has historically had a bad rap with the
feature of student life at MPH since the MPH administration and underclassmen.
establishment of the McNeil wing in Members of previous senior classes, and
1994; it was incorporated into the initial occasionally this one, have been criticized
building layout but was later reduced in for denying freshmen, sophomores and
size. The room currently features a large sometimes even juniors access to the
table and a bench on the left and clusters Lounge.
of church pews from the chapel of the Though many current seniors
Manlius School, the military school maintain that all are welcome and invited