291 CLOSING The Harding community has taught me many valuable lessons throughout my four years here, but perhaps the most impactful is the power of shared experience. Everyone featured within this book is a small part of a larger whole. Without the context of being at Harding during the 2022-23 school year, these stories will never quite be understood by those reading this in the years to come. In this position, Emily and I have worked to bring together the efforts of our entire team. We build off of the talents of our writers, photographers, and editors and find the best way to present it to the reader. As a staff, we have worked tirelessly to create a collection of stories that seeks to capture what it was like to experience this year, but it will inevitably fall short. That is where the beauty lies within this book— it can’t quite capture every aspect of our Harding experience— but it serves as a starting point. Go and tell these stories. Use this book as a place to begin, or a reference to fill in the blanks. But most importantly, keep these stories alive, and keep writing more. Watkins Kelly Emily Stinnett assistant layout and design editor The end! It has been an honor to help preserve and document Harding’s history during this 99th year. As a sentimental gal, I take pride in the responsibility of telling the story of a place I love filled with people I love. Almost every week I looked through old Petit Jean yearbooks and admired the work of past editors and the stories that were told about our school. It is special to be united with so many alumni who also created Petit Jean yearbooks. I reflected on the years my grandfather studied here, and eventually the year my parents met here and more recently when my older sisters attended here. Those memories exist because of the yearbook. The last page of one of my favorite yearbooks says this: “This is the end of the 1984 Petit Jean. It is also the compilation of another piece in the Harding puzzle. But just as there are Petit Jeans from the past, Lord willing, there will be Petit Jeans in the future that will continue putting the pieces together.” The Petit Jean is history in the making, and I am thankful to have been a part of it. head layout and design editor
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