Good afternoon everybody. Before I begin I would just like to take a moment to thank you all for coming today. It has been a long..long…very long time coming, and now that it is here, and I think I can speak for my class on this, we are honored that you have chosen to experience it with us. A lot of people have put an astounding amount of work into reaching this point, and I have no doubt it is with great pride that this ceremony commences.
High school is a place where we as students have the opportunity to explore what it is we love doing, and discover those things that we will be fine never ever having to study or experience again. In classrooms and labs, on playing fields and stages, and in all the corners of this school people find what it is they are passionate about. In the end that is the point of high school. It is where the chance lies to craft the first rungs on which you begin your ascension into whatever may lie in wait. In my time here I have found that one of my greatest passions is for all things of an relating to movies. They are the works of art that bring together all manner of people to create a story that comes alive before our eyes. Everyone has a movie that they can immediately relate to, and that ability of movies to seamlessly inject themselves into reality fascinates me.
These films are populated by characters that are the manifestations of every person who watches them. They are extensions of the writers, directors, and performers who see the same complexities of life that we see before us. They are more than just pixels on a screen. If we take the time to listen to what these characters have to say,they can give some remarkably sound advice.
I’d like us all to take a step back to when things were a little simpler. When sitting around and watching Disney movies filled the space that essays and assignments do now. I’ve found that some of the most enduring counsel can come from these places, and so my first bit comes from one of them: The Lion King
In a world so obsessed with advancement and success, it is often much more difficult than it should be to allow ourselves to sit back and just enjoy. With this in mind, the first character I’d like to quote is Timon, when he told Simba “Hakuna matata.” This phrase translates to “no worries,” and I believe this simple idea to try and take at least a little while every day to put yourself in a place of peace should resound with all of us. We off the class of 2014 are embarking on the next phases of our lives, whatever form that may take, and with these changes there comes a laundry list of opportunities for stress to get the best of us. It is inevitable that there will be deadlines, and days that seem to exist for no other reason to try and create countless worries for us, but that doesn’t mean in any way that they should dictate the entirety of our lives.
We as a class now have the opportunity to make decisions that will impact the rest of our lives, but that in no way means that the process of making these should inspire fear. They are decisions birthed in the joy that is the fulfillment of dreams.
When Timon and Pumba let Simba in on their mantra they are doing their absolute best to help him settle down in the wake of a terrible time. They represent the escape we all need, and it is within this escape that the best moments of our lives can be found. So as we go forward from this day I hope all of you here can allow yourselves to let go of that seemingly impossible presentation, or that sonata you just can’t seem to learn so you can sit down and have a good time with people just for the sake of nothing more than happiness. I know I struggle with that, but when I take the time it’s well worth it.
With that in mind, it is important to recognize that there will always be stretches where this seems impossible. We as humans have before us lives rich with spells of heartbreak that make it difficult to find the beauty and happiness of just living. That brings me to my second quote.
In the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart plays a small town man who is confronted with filling a senate seat vacated by the death of the man that held it. He rushes in to Washington wide-eyed and ready to change the world, a shock to those who had been numbed by their tenures in the city. When he is asked how he can stay so assured of his causes, he tells a story that his father once told. He says “Have you ever noticed how grateful you are to see daylight again after coming through a long dark tunnell? Well, always try to see life around ya as if you’d just come out of a tunnel.”
It is with this in mind we should try to look at every day life. We live in a world of extraordinary circumstances which allow us to experience things those that came before us could only dream of. At times it may be difficult to remember this, but that is why we are surrounded my others who have felt the same way. There are people around us at all times who commit themselves to helping us find that light no matter how long the tunnel. There are countless faculty members at this school who do just that, and I am reminded of a particular tunnel I went through and the teacher who helped me remember that the light doesn’t have to be blinding.
My sophomore year I missed just about two months in the beginning of the school year because of an injury that became more of a problem than I had expected. After a particularly rough stretch I decided I needed to get away, and so I decided to go stay with family, which would mean missing another week of school. Now, I hadn’t made it to many of of any of classes, so I didn’t know my teachers all too well, but that didn’t stop one teacher from holding up a candle to help light my way.
I had gone into pick up my homework, and my last stop was the history lounge to see Mrs. Sharland. She came out and gave me my work, and gave me hug, but what has always stayed with me was the note that I found on top of the homework. It read “Something to cheer you up:”, and underneath it was a picture of a man holding an enormous fat cat. Below that it read “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” – Mark Twain. I have the note here. I kept it, and ever since that day it has helped to remind me that people generally care about one another. This note made me smile in a time when it had seemed nearly impossible to, and it has continued to help me see each new day in a light of discovery, and not dismay.