Commencement Address 2020

Here is the transcript of my address for graduation on May 23, 2020, which was a hybrid celebration: in-person, personal graduations combined in a video along with other awards and congratulations. Link to the video follows.

Good afternoon.

It is my pleasure to address the Class of 2020 at your high school commencement.

During this time apart, you’ve been inundated with advice and quotes and memes and slogans. Some poignant and some funny but I found none more fitting than this one. One of my favorite authors, and certainly one of the most quoted, CS Lewis, wrote, “What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”

Think about this. What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. This could be where you physically are, but more importantly, your role at the time. We call this empathy, or putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. This virus, this quarantine, has been incredibly hard for people in so many different ways and for some people, a blessing. Some of you may have loved homeschooling. Some parents cherished their last months with you were quieter, with more time spent as a family. For some, school is life. Being apart from your friends, sports, activities, and even classes was awful. Some parents struggled as essential workers or working from home with kids or being laid off of their job.

The second part of the quote, more importantly, “it also depends on what sort of person you are.” Through this and as you navigate through your adult life: Be the sort of person that finds the good in a situation. Be the sort of person that forgives with grace. Be the sort of person that serves others. Be the sort of person that solves problems instead of creating them. Be the sort of person that has gratitude for all you are given. Be the sort of person that is courageous in the face of the unknown. Be the sort of person that has integrity always. Be the sort of person that is dedicated to a worthy cause. You have been given the tools to be this sort of person, because you are Kennedy.

There will be times when taking a different perspective and being positive will be hard. I am sure we will all have these days in the months to come. This is a marathon not a sprint. Your collective years at Kennedy are more important than the last quarter. Don’t let this ending be what you remember. Let it be the service days, the homecoming dances, the games you played in or cheered for the blue and white; let it be the times in the dining hall and the Think Lab and the chapel. Remember the classroom with your teachers- some of what you learned but more importantly how it made you feel to be a part of the Kennedy family.

Your legacy as a class isn’t that you ended your career here abruptly. It’s how you spend those other 12 years becoming a class we all loved. To the Class of 2020- be strong, do good in the world, and go soar.



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