June 10, 2012
The following speech was delivered to the Class of 2012 at MPA’s commencement ceremony on June 9, 2012.
Tonight your paths diverge and we drop you tadpoles into ponds far and wide. We release you to create new communities and be created by anew. As you swim off, we retire to our screens to Google you, to YouTube you, to Facebook friend you, to i-chat you and i-this you and i-that you. LOL, XX OO…let the SKYPES begin.
In one of your classes this year, you considered the march of your school years through the lens of innovation. Facebook launching during your third grade year, Google going public in fourth grade, Youtube in fifth, the now ubiquitous iPhone unveiled in sixth. Each one world changing in its own way.
But as you sharpen your virtual tools for the next leg of your journey, never forget the power of flesh and blood. The hand that touches the face is greater than the tap on the screen. An O is not a hug. An X is not a kiss.
So sign off, get up from your screen, walk down the hall to the room of that classmate you’re collaborating with on a project. Feel the electric charge of an idea in the voice of a live person. Commune with the abundant humanity around you. Hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution can’t be wrong, can’t be wiped clean by a few decades of innovation. Live your life in the presence of others, encountering them with all five of your senses.
And from time to time, seniors, come home. Come home so we can see you in the flesh, see how the years have worked on you, see how the world has changed you. For change you it will, as it has changed all of us here gathered to share in this moment.
As hard as it may be to imagine, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, each of your teachers was once a high school senior like you. Dreaming of a future as yet unknown, as you are tonight. Look on all the good they have done and believe in your own power to change the world, as they have changed yours. For all they have done to bring you to this moment, please join me in thanking your Mounds Park Academy teachers.
Harder still for you to imagine perhaps, are your parents as high school seniors. Go ahead, take a look and imagine them sitting where you are now, eyes on the future, unlikely yet to be dreaming of you. As hard as it may be for you to imagine them in that high school world, they can conjure your baby image just by closing their eyes and imagining the smell of your newborn freshness, or hearing the peel of your laughter at a fifth birthday party. The physical, flesh and blood “you” will always be with them. For bringing you into the world and putting you at the center of theirs, please join me in thanking your parents.
So, tadpoles, off you go. Your new pond awaits. Jump in…the water’s fine.
And on behalf of the entire Mounds Park Academy Community, it is my great pleasure and honor to present the Mounds Park Academy class of 2012.
