1,466 — that's how many of us walked through the Van Wickle Gates on a sunny late summer Tuesday nearly four years ago.
It was easy to feel a heady sense of accomplishment that day, the class of 2010's official arrival on campus.
18,316 — that's how many people had applied to be where we were, and we were the lucky few who made the cut.
It was also easy to feel like this weekend was our destiny from the moment that fat Brown envelope arrived in the mail — parents circled May 30, 2010 on their calendars while the ink was still drying on our deposit checks.
So here's another number to consider: 1,216 — that's how many of those 1,466 the registrar expects will receive a diploma this weekend.
We may, at long last, be the class of 2010 not in theory but in fact, but for at least 250 of our number, the pathway to a diploma wasn't so clear-cut.
Some 194 hit a detour, their routes leading off College Hill for a semester or more. Another 19 moved into the fast lane, zooming to an early finish. There are 25 of us whose tracks the registrar can classify only as "other."
For 12 of us, the road led away from Brown, permanently. In one case, it led to a tragic end.
In the pages that follow, The Herald profiles some members of the "Class of 2010" for whom graduating today didn't become a reality. Though new faces may have filled in our class, obscuring the empty Commencement seats, we hope you'll keep those who are not with us in mind as you read through these articles.
