By Andy Barr
Graduation affords seniors an opportunity to meditate upon the last four years spent in high school; the accomplishments, the successes, the learning, the hardship, and the failures.
For the rest of the school, graduation is a time for self-evaluation, a time to take stock of the progress one has made and set goals for the future. But graduation is by no means a time for excessive back-patting.
If the successes of our school were half as spectacular as our failures, we’d be much further up in the state and national rankings. But rankings are not the sole determinant of educational success.
Indeed, it is our unique brand of failure mixed with success that makes Prospect High School what it is.
In an effort to contribute to the graduation proceeding, I wrote a graduation speech (below) focusing on this very point, but ironically, it failed to make the cut. In closing, it has been an honor and a privilege to write for the Prospector and to work alongside some brilliant student editors, as well as the distinguished Mr. Jason Block.
To those of you who over the last four years read and commented on the blog and columns, thank you. To those of you who sent angry anonymous letters to my house, I traced the letters.
I know who you are.
The Speech:
It was not so long ago that we were all very small children. At that time, we represented to our parents – and to the world – unlimited, untapped potential.
We were tiny untested creatures who held the promise of great success in everything we tried.
Now, high school graduation speeches often revisit this notion of unlimited potential, motivating graduates with phrases like “nothing is impossible”, “shoot for the stars,” and “follow your dreams.”