MEET MICHAEL

My name is Michael G. or Mr. G. if you graduated between 2005 and 2011.  To say that I loved teaching and coaching at Mercy is a huge understatement.  I looked forward to coming to work every single day, the faculty, administration, staff and most importantly the “Mercy girls” made it the best teaching job I could ever imagine.

I have a question for all of you - when did Mercy start to feel like home to you?  After a month, a week, at lunch on the first day of orientation?

It varies a little for all of us, but the reason you are sitting here tonight is because for 4 years of your life Mercy was home.
 

When a young woman feels at home, they are free to be themselves, they are free to focus on what is important and tune out some if not all of the nonsense that challenges our young people today.
I would like to focus on two of the qualities of most Mercy girls that I remember vividly.  Two qualities they were able to focus on because we gave them a home - a place they knew they were safe and loved and cared for.  Those two qualities are Seriousness and Silliness.

Mercy girls can be quite serious, the discussions I overheard about supporting Mama’s House or the Smile Train, the insane amount of reading for history class or math, particularly the graphing so much talk about graphing... went on every morning, lunch period and afternoon.

But what I remember equally and a little more fondly was the silliness. The absolute nuttiness of it all,
the students were silly, the faculty was silly.  Do you want proof, look at some pictures of the faculty on Halloween.   

 

We laughed every day, I never left school without something to smile about. That in my opinion comes from the felling of comfort and stability that only home can give.  We all benefit from that but I think now more than ever young women need this place.

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Where else can a young woman roll out of bed 5 minutes before the bus comes, put on her uniform that is balled up on the floor and place their hair in a messy, Mercy bun and then arrive at school ready to discuss the worlds issues and at lunch explain to a fellow student what exactly an inverse trig function is?

Where else can they be scholars, and athletes and dancers and artists all while wearing the same pair of sweatpants for the 4th day in a row with a mismatched kilt that while it does have great pockets hasn’t seen an iron since September?

When we allow an all girls school to be closed, when we allow Mercy to be closed so many things are lost,
The thing that stands out to me is the loss of comfort and stability.  We are in a time when we know that young women are being quite literally damaged by social media and we are closing one of the few places where they feel comfortable enough to be their true selves, to be silly and serious.  To laugh everyday and maybe cry everyday without fear of judgement.  

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We can’t protect our girls from the real world forever but we can provide Mercy.