Mass at Austin Preparatory School

Thursday, June 4, 2009

For four years, both my sister and I were students at Austin simultaneously. Uh oh. I can remember more than one person during those four years asking me how I felt having my younger sister at the same school as me. I could easily tell from their tone that they thought they were being clever, that they were waiting for me to complain about how I just wanted to hang out with all my “cool” older friends without having my little sister around. My answer was always the same, however: I didn’t really mind having her here with me that much at all.

Over time, I came to deeply appreciate it. During my senior year and my sister’s freshman year, when I could finally drive, I drove us to school almost every morning. I came to look forward to spending time with her on the way to school complaining about this or that teacher who assigned too much homework, discussing the classes we were really enjoying, and trading stories about our friends and our lives in general. While we were pulled from this room to that room and secluded in our own group of friends during the school day, our early morning ride to school became the time of the day during which my sister and I hung out, and it became a time I looked forward to. I know my sister looked forward to it, too.

At Austin, my sister was what our school calls a lifer. That is, someone who studied here from sixth grade through senior year in high school. During that time, she was never absent once, and she was an extremely dedicated student, taking the most challenging courses she could and working hard to complete all of her assignments as well as she possibly could. There is no question that her teachers at Austin, many of whom are gathered here tonight, prepared her well for Assumption College, where she succeeded outstandingly in her first year there. There is also no question that Alyssa was supported throughout her time at Austin by some very excellent friends, many of whom I and my family have met throughout the years at various events.

Beyond the domain of Austin, my sister was also a lifer in the more general sense that she was someone who, throughout her nineteen years, was energetic, dedicated to living well, and passionate for the people and projects she chose to have in her life. She was an ardent animal lover, a fact brought up by many in the preceding weeks and attested to by both the many pictures that my mother has of her feeding ducks or petting animals in a zoo and by the rather sizable stuffed animal collection she built up over the course of her life. She was also a volunteer at many different organizations, a dedicated and loving daughter and sister, and a wonderful friend to many. It really is an honor to be her brother, and I, along with all of you, miss her terribly.

The outpouring of support my family has received over the preceding several weeks from members of the Austin Community – including administrators, faculty, staff, and my and my sister’s fellow classmates and friends – has been immense, and my family and I thank all of you for that as well as for being here tonight. While Austin is a place where some of us studied and worked in the past and others continue to do so now, it’s also a larger family to all of us. A larger family that looks out for all of its members carefully, even after some of us move on to different and bigger brick buildings, change jobs, or are no longer with us. As far as we may move away from our beloved beige-bricked building, we all know that we always have a place to return to that was and is our home.

Two weeks ago, some of Alyssa’s closest friends from Austin planted a small cherry tree in her memory on the right side of the driveway as you’re driving up towards the main building, in a spot that my sister and I drove by every morning on our way to school.  That tree serves a living reminder that my sister is still present with us, embodied in our community, in all of those who knew her during her time here, especially all of you gathered here today. Our other fellow Austin students and members of the faculty who are no longer with us are also embodied in our community, and we are all also thinking of them tonight. In sharing this space and time together this evening, let us remember, celebrate, and honor all of their lives together by proceeding tonight in the same mode in which my little sister lived her own life: joyously, fully, and in the company others.

Michael Nanopoulos