Members of the faculty, administration, family, friends, and fellow graduates -- good evening. A special thank you to Mr. Parravano for sharing his knowledge and delivering those wise words.

 

It's been said before, and will surely be said again --congratulations, Class of 2010. I congratulate you on doing everything it has taken to be able to sit on this stage. I congratulate you on walking down that long aisle...without falling. And, of course, I congratulate you on completing four years at an institution that, as we have become fond of saying, truly “forced it”. Today is about applauding you, applauding us, on all that we have accomplished.

 

Today, we come together to celebrate this turning point in our lives. We are officially graduating from a school whose name we still have trouble pronouncing.  For some reason, we always forget where the S is placed in that acronym. 

  

In preparing this speech, I tried in all seriousness to reflect on memories of the times we've shared (perhaps even drawing some lessons from them), present some clichéd, but hopefully motivational, words as we move forward, and thank those who need thanking.  If I accomplish these three things, and do so while showing off some of the sophisticated vocabulary we've been forced to learn along the way, then I guess this would be successful, and maybe even useful.  

 

In the last four years, we have learned, laughed, cried, gotten in trouble and, of course, matured into adults. Often people state that high school was the best four years of their lives. Honestly, I can say that doesn’t apply to anyone on this stage. Think about it for a moment: every morning, we entered a building that ran the air conditioner during the winter and the heat during the summer. Before we were able to walk into our morning meetings we were immediately told to pull out our collar, show our belt, and lather on some hand sanitizer. And once we entered, we were reminded that our individuality was stifled because apparently everyone else is wearing the same outfit, including some of the teachers. We were constantly threatened with demerits and detentions and Mr. Parris’ wary eye caught everything, so we all knew that once that iPhone came out, we would surely be punished. We were forced to eat lunch with no flavor in a classroom and then clean up after a mess we didn’t make. We were tortured with double blocks of class in which we either dozing off or bouncing up and down. And, then we were forced to stay at school until 3:41, which is such an awkward time. You can’t imagine how long a minute can be.

 

But, as much as we don’t want to admit it, we loved it all. CCSC may be strict but there are many opportunities to laugh and make memories. We loved the fact that we could text our teachers, assist in teaching younger students, and stay after school for hours until we were hunted down and forced to leave for the evening.  We did not see the irony in our constant complaints and desire to stick around, though it is now so obvious.  We loved hearing the seemingly mismatched high pitched voice coming out of Mr. Crawford's imposing form. We laughed together when Darryl flipped our backpacks inside out, Joli imitated our dance moves, or Paige destroyed school property by playing a simple game like catch. We have sucked our teeth, danced on chairs, covered up our cell phones going off, and even chased chickens in Vermont. Who could forget the canoeing trips, the sharing of lunches, and the common phrase of : what the? Who could forget the intense basketball games, the tagging of funny photos, and the Haitian Creole lessons.

 

 On the academic side, we have operated on rats, created prototypes of buildings, conducted chemistry labs that made the entire school smell like vomit. We have struggle with logarithms and the unit circle. We have nodded frequently, pretending to understand all of the Spanish thrown our way, when in reality, it was more like we understood about half.  We have made so many quote sandwiches that we’ve lost our appetite for a real ham and cheese.  We have made Shakespearean English modern and honored it with renditions in the old, traditional form.  We enjoyed having heated discussions in class...and then could not help continuing them afterward, during lunch, and while passing through the hallways. 

 

I guess you can say we have become a community of scholars who love learning for the sake of learning. Throughout these four years, we have grown. I remember sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows on our junior class retreat to Vermont, when we began to do something we, as a group have perfected over the years – creating a lot of noise. Each of us made a different sound attempting to create music. Sadly, it wasn’t a perfect harmony, but only a lot of screeching. However, to me, it was proof of how no matter off-key we might sound, we could always depend on each other.  

 

Class of 2010, we are more than an element of a school community; we are family. We supported each other through the many tough times. We have pulled all nighters, talking on the phone throughout, in order to finish our papers, labs and projects. We have celebrated together during the best of times, and held each other during the worst, those tragic events we all remember. The sorrowful day when a dear member of our community past away brought us together. The love between us allowed us to get through it all. We have been with each other and I have never felt more touched by you all.  And, we must continue on relying on each other because the friendships and networking we have made can last forever and bring success.

 

A couple of days ago, I celebrated my father’s birthday with my family at a Chinese restaurant.  As happens, we were presented with fortune cookies for dessert.  I broke the crisp cookie in two and went after my fortune. It read: "Your past success will be overshadowed by your future success." (It also told me my lucky numbers were 4, 13, 28, 31, but that’s a bit irrelevant.) I just wanted to tell you all that this is the beginning. I’m not a fortune teller and I myself do not have enough life experience to stand up here and offer words to guide you.  The point is, that given all we've been through, and the very fact that we're on this stage, I truly believe that each of you, each of us, already has it in him or her to be successful in our future endeavors. There are many students who came to CCSC but not everyone made it. We have though. And, just to say that we are grads from CCSC is something really special. I am as confident of that as I am of anything.  Make no mistake, we are prepared for college and the next set of challenges coming our way.   We will be future doctors, business owners, lawyers, landscapers, and engineers.  And, though no one wants to admit it, some of us will probably even become teachers.   My only wise words are never give up and go out there and do something remarkable.

Class of 2010, us sitting on this stage and graduating, is not just about our work, it is proof that our teachers pushed us to reach for excellence and our families sacrificed so that we could.

 

On behalf of all the graduates I want to thank CCSC’s dedicated faculty and staff for all their support and nurturing and for teaching us to think for ourselves. I would like to thank the teachers who actually stood in front of us over the years.  But every teacher at CCSC deserves thanks.  They continue influencing students and making a change in education. I also want to thank a few of the people who played such a vital role in our journey. Ms. Evans, thank you for establishing the school, for fighting to allow for the opening of its doors, and for truly believing in the creation of a place where everyone grows intellectually. Ms. Smith -- thank you for all that you did in the upper school. You always knew where everything was, what we needed, and how to help. Things would not have functioned without you. I would like to thank Ms. Hairston who has helped each of us with the college process..

 

Thank you, Ms. Najjar for helping us manage our personal and academic lives. Her advice often served as our remedy for bouts of temporary insanity.  Mr. Hurst-Hiller, thank you for being you. The passion with which you teach has always been contagious and you have impacted our life tremendously. Mr. Parris, thank you for being our teacher; it has truly been the most wonderful of love/hate relationships.

 

I want to thank Mr. Connell for going beyond his teaching and advising duties, for always being ready to hear his students’ problems and for always being so willing to provide them with advice during difficult times.  Ms. Sheppard-Brick, for your advisees, you were always there, often the last teacher leaving the Upper School, and you always cared.  You did whatever it took and, well, the result is this -- we're here, graduating, ready to leave CCSC, ready for the world outside.

 

I would like to thank my parents for raising me, loving me unconditionally and encouraging me to be passionate about life. I would like to thank my entire family for believing in me, supporting me emotionally, making me feel fortunate at any given moment, and shaping my identity. 

 

Most importantly, I would like to thank God. He has paved our ways and will remain with us through all obstacles. Without him we would not be here.

 

Fellow graduates, it has been a pleasure being with you these last four (and in some cases, five) years. You are the funniest, loudest, and most talented group of individuals I have ever met. You are my best friends; the people I can depend on and truly need in this transition from high school to college. Though some of you, like me, might be frightened to make that final step, let me assure you that the education and the friendships we have gained here at CCSC are precious gifts that we will keep forever. Again, Congratulations Class of 2010! I know you are just as anxious as I am to get our diploma, take pictures and grub. So, let's do this. Thank you again!