CHS 2012 Gradation Speech: Andrew Millar

Good evening to faculty, members of the Board of Education, friends, family, and my fellow classmates. Well it was the fourth consecutive snow day in October when I turned to my mom in our dark house and said, “do you know what’s worse than not having showered for four days?” At that point she couldn’t think of much. But I said, “with all of these snow days, I don’t think I will ever graduate.” However, here we are today, amidst this beautiful weather – happy, celebrating, and clean again.

The day is finally here. I want to begin by talking about a letter I received in the mail a few weeks ago. You see, our eighth grade English teacher Ms. Chafetz, had us write to our future selves about anything we wanted to. Advice, goals, questions that provoked reflection. And by and large the product was …well, mortifying. To understand this, I want everyone to think back to themselves in your more youthful days. Go all the way back to middle school. For my classmates this won’t be too hard, but I understand for others this was aways back. Middle school — you know — the days of figuring out combination locks, growth spurts, and mouths full of braces and headgear.

At least I’d like to think I wasn’t the only one with headgear. Anyway, middle school is an interesting time for everyone regardless of your generation. To the graduates in my generation, we shamelessly rocked out to songs like Fergalicious. We all sported camouflage pattern L.L.Bean backpacks with our initials on them. After school we’d kick back and relax while watching some Lizzie McGuire or That’s So Raven.

And we were just starting to earn our reputation as a digitized generation. In fact we instant messaged constantly from our screen names which were usually something clever and full of x’s and o’s, for example, OliviaX317. Judging by some of the content of my letter, we also made a lot of jokes that we thought were funny — but to our eighteen your old selves, are not. Yes, we were a strange and eclectic bunch back in the day. To hit this point home, I will share that when I opened my letter last week, I found that my eighth grade self included some gifts. Among other things this included a crushed pretzel, two dollars, and a single pistachio.

But today instant messages have given way to tweets, and the awkward middle schoolers have blossomed into what we hope are socially functioning young adults. Our grade has grown up quite a bit and accomplished quite a lot along the way. Our biggest trip used to be to Washington D.C. Four years later an astounding number of students are graduating having travelled to China, Mexico, Spain, France, and soon Ghana. These trips have opened our eyes to the realities and diversity of the world we live in. At the same time we were pushed out of our comfort zones and forced to deal with unfamiliar situations. I for one, tried to fill a toilet tank with a bucket brigade of Dixie cups in Mexico. Not everyone can say they’ve had that experience. Plumbing problems aside, our travels have made us more cultured and aware citizens of the world.

Previously, I joked about the music we listened to as middle schoolers. Well in the last four years it amazes me how many of my peers have decided to make their own music. Our grade is the first to have one of our own, fly out to Los Angeles not once but two times to play at Grammy related events. Additionally members our class have lead the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo to first place finishes at the Berklee Jazz Festival. In the past four years, the musicians among us have continually pushed themselves and gained a sense of what an art form truly is.

Over time, we have also grown into more responsible people. Many of us have chosen to juggle part-time jobs in addition to countless hours of homework and extra-curricular activities. In this way we began to take responsibility for ourselves and use our own money. Unless of course, you’re Miranda Jurras, in which case I’d like to say you still owe me eight dollars for those chicken tenders.

Many of us have become leaders in our community as well. In the middle school years, we were mentored by those older and more-experienced than us. Now this is a class of seasoned girl scouts, Eagle scouts, rotary volunteers, tutors, humanitarians and all around excellent leaders within the community. In middle school, we were concerned about missing the bus. Now, as Drew Baugher’s shelter symbolizes, we are still concerned about the bus. But with regards to others and with regards to giving back to our community.

For those of you who have stuck with sports you’ve worked amazingly hard these past four years. While I don’t know your successes from firsthand experience, I do, however, read the Patch. And from what I gather Canton’s athletes are hard-working enthusiastic and successful. Recent accomplishments include a softball team which advanced to the Class S semifinals and the boys outdoor track team placing second in the Class S state championship.

Even more important than awards and titles are the intellectual yet down to earth, problem solvers that comprise the Class of 2012.Teachers often praise this class as one of the highest achieving to graduate from Canton High School. Indeed, the class discussions we have in humanities classes are deep and thoughtful. Students study hours to master material in math and the natural sciences. This intellectual work ethic and maturity will make us the next strategists, innovators, and diplomats in the upcoming years. At the same time, I have found our class to be extremely personable and fun. Laughter has been an integral part of the curriculum for this class.

In many graduation speeches, graduates are told to break the mold and get people’s attention. While I whole-heartedly agree with this sentiment, I’d like to say that breaking the mold is necessarily about doing something radical or being the best at something. I enjoy a good YOLO moment as much as the next guy, but don’t lose sight of the simpler ways to be unique. Everyone knows what YOLO is right? Anyway, one of my favorite books, The Last Lecture, was written by a professor named Randy Pausch. In it, Pausch describes how whenever he asked a peer to evaluate a paper, he sent along a box of thin mints. The box of thin mints, as you can imagine would sit on that person’s desk within reach. And it served as a constant yet friendly and delicious reminder of the favor the needed to be done. So as you go out into the world, don’t think that you must act competitive and brash to get noticed. (The world is already full of those things and thus acts of kindness, humor, and consideration will really make you stand out.

One such act of consideration is very important. Saying thank you. To start off, I want to thank the administrators and Board of Education. They spend hours planning and leading initiatives that make our school the great place we know. And, well, after thirteen years of education, they’ve invested a lot in us. Then there are the teachers. One of my favorite aspects of the Canton schools has always been how dedicated the teachers are. In particular I can recall many a Friday night spent at chemistry reviews put on by Ms. Ott. And also many Sunday nights at history reviews with Ms. Mocarski. Now you might be wondering did the students ever sleep with all these reviews. To answer your question – not really. But that is neither here nor there. The point rather, is that teachers are so dedicated here that students are willing to forgo non-essential things like sleep in order to meet their high expectations. Additionally, we must thank our fellow classmates. We helped each other through good times and bad. We are cohesive and friendly to one another. You know, I’ve heard of adults receiving invitations to their class reunions and saying things like “eew. Why on Earth would I go to that?” Well, at the very least I can tell my class with confidence that this will not be my reaction when our reunion comes around. In fact, I look forward to seeing you all again someday and thank you for the memories we made. Until then, I will honestly miss coming to school and seeing you all.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Mom and Dad and all the parents in this room. You studied flashcards with us, you kept us grounded, kept us safe, you were our advocates and voices of reason. Thank you for saying yes to questions ranging from “will you read me a bedtime story” to “can I go to Spain?” And thanks for saying “no” sometimes too. For example last night, when I was told “no, you cannot end your speech that way.” Your guidance and support have allowed us to stand here before you today. And thank you for putting up with us during those difficult middle school years I described earlier on. We hope you are proud of the people we’ve become since then. Congratulations to this exceptional Class of 2012. I’m confident that we will continue to achieve greatness wherever we seek it.