June 10, 2007

Welcome: Peter Branch, Head of School
From the Principal: Kevin Barr, High School Principal
Faculty Speaker: Bobby Asher, High School History Teacher
Class of 2007 Speaker: McKenzie Fowler
Class of 2007 Speaker: David Gold
Parent Speaker: Annie Whatley, Parent

Speeches from the Classes of 2002 - 2006...

Welcome by Peter Branch, Head of School

It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you to the 36th Commencement of Georgetown Day School and to the graduation of the Class of 2007. I am delighted to see you all here today to recognize and honor the accomplishments of this group of uniquely talented and dynamic young men and women. They are poised on the edge of their seats, not for my talk of course, but for the moment when they walk back down the aisle with their diplomas and go out into the world. Second semester seniors, now enrolled in colleges and universities, they have already psychologically left us, parents and teachers, behind. But we have them yet with us, if only for a few more moments.

While they have been with us at GDS, they have contributed much to the life and spirit of the school. I particularly owe them a great deal for their leadership of the student body through the physical and emotional changes which the new High School facilities have wrought. Change is never easy, even, or perhaps, especially, for adults. But during your junior year, you endured with patience and good humor the noise, confinement and the displacement of the big dig.

This year you roared into the new student forum the first day of classes and made it and the school your own. Borrowing from the Grateful Dead, your Class of 2007 tee-shirts read “What a long strange trip it’s been!” The editors of your yearbook selected as its theme, “New Addition”. They noted: “To us, GDS has always been a place that we could make our home. … By choosing to play music in the student forum, painting birthday signs for friends, and finding a nook in the hall that is just right, not too big and not too secluded, GDS students have been able to transcend academic changes, physical changes, and personal changes by keeping ‘their place’ in the school. On the down side, as one of your senior quests noted, you have felt so at home at GDS that parts of it have sometimes looked like your unkempt bedrooms. As a result, you have left us both a challenge and the inspiration for a solution which will hopefully make GDS an even better place for all of us who work and live there.

You are a group of young men and women of many talents. In class you have shared your gifts of perception and eloquence, as well as your concern for each other. Such talents have been honed since your earliest days at GDS. While many of you joined GDS in the High School, many others were promoted from the Lower Middle School. In fact, 28 of you are lifers who entered in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten. Five of you are children of alumni. Your ranks have now grown to a total of 113.

Academically, you have been willing to challenge yourselves and to take risks. Such efforts have born fruit as you have grown in your skills and performance. The first senior class to experience fully the new SAT I with writing, your combined median verbal, math and writing scores were 446 points over the national median. 34% of you were recognized a Finalists or Commended Scholars by the National Merit programs. In your junior year, 89% earned Advanced Placement passing scores of 3 or higher, 67% scores of 4 or higher, and 39% received the top score of 5.

Your plans for the immediate future are diverse, even though all of you have been accepted by a college or university. Indeed, your class was accepted by 143 different institutions and will attend 67 different schools, with some of you going to colleges in Switzerland, Scotland and Canada. Three will matriculate at conservatories in your fields of musical theatre, dance and cello. A number of graduates will pursue gap year or semester off options. For example, one will focus on sharpening her climbing skills overseas, another will spend time in Latin America continuing environmental research, and yet another will study in England while developing his soccer skills. The range of interests and the willingness to enhance them in unique ways is remarkable and admirable in this group of Hoppers.

Without question, GDS athletic spirit has benefited from our new facilities. You broke them in and showed us how to enjoy them. The sound of exciting competition in the gym drew us to see you play and the accessibility of the all-weather field called spectators out of the forum. 4 extraordinarily dedicated members of your class received 12 letter awards for participating on varsity teams for all three seasons for all four years of high school. 11 athletes were awarded four year awards in the fall, 11 for winter sports and 19 for spring participation. Such leadership was critical to the spirit and accomplishment of our teams. One member of the crew team was chosen as 1 of 44 athletes named by U.S. Rowing to its 2006 Scholastic Honor Role. Another senior was one of only three GDS runners in our history to compete in the Nike Indoor National High School Track Championships, setting a GDS record for indoor 400 meters and being named to the Post’s first team in Boys Field and Track. Another of you was the number one women’s foul shooter in the DC metro area. And, of course, you prevailed in Powder Puff football. To foster school spirit, a group of you led the effort to establish the GDS Fan Club, wearing tee-shirts with the motto: “Home is where the heart is.” On occasion, you even inspired us by appearing as pirates.

You were just as committed to the Arts at GDS but had to delay your gratification with the new performing arts facilities until they were completed. Fortunately, an early delivery of the new Black Box meant that only the fall production of “Arabian Nights” had to be otherwise located. You masterfully responded to the Director’s vision of mounting this production in a tent. Those of you who led the backstage, or rather backtent, efforts are to be commended for all your flexibility and creativity during this challenging year of changes. The One Acts moved into the theatre soon after it was finished and the musical production of On the Town appeared to be an attempt to see what the new Black Box could do. You stepped into other new spaces with performances that looked like you had always been there – Fata Morgana in the new dance studio and splendid vocal and instrumental shows in the student forum, as well as the theatre. Several of you have shown us your gifts as individual performers. One of you is a cello player who has performed with Yo Yo Ma and at Carnegie Hall. Two of you staged one person shows as quests in the Black Box, with one raising over $1000 for Cancer research.

In studio art, the new halls of our enlarged space have been enhanced by the display of your work. In the Congressional Art Competition, two GDS seniors received the second and third place awards. One of you was named the Shell Youth Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Three of you won a prize in the C-SPAN student cam project without actually using a video camera. Your participation in Blues Alley in Georgetown gave others the chance to learn that jazz is alive and well at GDS.

Your dedication to language and the word gave quality to GDS publications this year, most notably Menagarie, the yearbook, the Auger Bit, our newspaper, and the revived Grasslands, the literary magazine. Two of you had poems accepted for the Parkmont Poetry Prize. One of you won an essay prize on the preservation of Civil War battlefields. In Debate, It’s Academic, Model UN and Model Congress you also showed an individuality in argument and expression which brought you reward and recognition. Your work in SSC similarly demonstrated an appeal to reason as you grappled with issues of school governance.

You have also been active participants and leaders in the many activities which fulfill our commitment to the equal worth of each individual within our diverse community. The Black Culture Club, Rainbow Connections, Latino Arts, AWARE, Fusion, SIS, indeed all our organization which value and celebrate the unique individual qualities of all us who make GDS GDS, have benefited from your dedication of time and energy. As a result, you have contributed to successful local and national Student Diversity Leadership Conferences, GDS diversity retreats, the White Privilege Conference, Gay Pride Week, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day teach-in. One of your members was the winner of the Princeton University award for dedication to diversity efforts.

Part of what you have learned at GDS is the interdependence of the peoples of our world. Your participation in community service has given much to others, but hopefully it has also inspired in you a commitment to better the conditions of life for others beside yourselves. As a class, you have served over 17,340 documented hours of community service. 11 students worked over 300 hours. You tutored school-age children and guided pre-schoolers, coached and taught physically challenged and autistic children and adults, built low income housing, tended neglected and abused animals, fed the hungry and aided the homeless, advocated on behalf of human rights, worked in congressional offices and at the National Zoo (no connection intended there), visited the aging, assisted the children of migrant workers, worked to bridge the divide between Israeli and Palestinian teens, helped build a school in Ethiopia and gutted destroyed homes in New Orleans. Four members trained to become EMTs. And this work took place throughout the United States and the world. This class, in particular, looked for unique ways to help those in need. You have much to be proud of.

This year has been one of first time events which may very well become GDS traditions. You have been responsible for the first GDS game of Assassin, the first roller-disco homecoming dance in the new garage, the first sit-in in the library, the first sit-on on the field, the first game of laser tag, not to mention other firsts that are best left unmentioned.

As you leave this hall today as graduates and alumni of GDS, you will be marking a significant change in your life. There are numerous such markers which we observe over time – birthdays, the first day of school, graduations, marriage and commitment ceremonies, first jobs, promotions, not to speak of divorces, retirements, and funerals. Change is the nature of life. Most often, however, it is not marked by ceremony. It just creeps up on us. At my age, I am less and less able to jump from one boat to another, although I still try, much to the dismay of my wife and children.

But since change is inevitable, we achieve little by seeking to ignore or resist it. Our effort must be, as yours was when you first entered our new high school, to make it our own. As you confront the issues of the world, do not try to separate yourself from the realities you find there. Do not think that they will have no effect on your lives. Mere opposition will be futile and will lead to frustration. You owe it to yourselves and to others to bring your talents to bear on the great issues of your time. It is important, in managing the inevitable daily demands, that you not think small or forget the larger goals of your lives. The maroon stripe itself is not important, but what it signifies is. Remember the lessons and the skills you have been taught at GDS – flexibility of mind but steadiness of purpose, celebration of difference but commitment to common values, and, above all, devotion to those you love and who love you.

The Faculty and I believe the Class of 2007 has the ability to make a positive difference in a world which all too much needs change. Go forth unafraid and with our affection and best wishes. Congratulations on your successful commencement.

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From the Principal: Kevin Barr, High School Principal

Our former director, Gladys Stern, used to say that the purpose of education, and especially a GDS education, was to make you fit company for yourself. Such a notion puts equal weight on the worth of the individual and the worth of the education he or she receives. So, I have been thinking about what you have learned during your four years at the High School that might make you fit company for yourself and others. If I were a math teacher or an art teacher by trade, I probably would have come up with a different list of the useful lessons your teachers and the books you have studied tried to impart, but being an English teacher by calling, my list runs as follows.

In ninth grade you read the story of Cain and Abel and learned that you probably shouldn't kill your brother and then bury him, expecting that God or your parents wouldn't notice he was missing. You also learned from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations that if you are invited to play in the house of a creepy old woman who has not looked upon the light of day for twenty years and seems not to notice that her wedding dress which she never takes off is turning yellow, you should leave immediately for London. Zora Neale Hurston in Their Eyes Were Watching God made it clear that following your dreams even if they take you to the horizon and back is better than staying physically safe in a situation which denies your essential self.

In 10th grade William Wordsworth shared with you the sad fact that we come into this world trailing clouds of glory but in our mania for getting and spending we lay waste the natural gifts God gave us. Of course, you also learned from Shakespeare's Macbeth that just because your wife wants you to be king and three half naked ladies suggest that it's in the cards, knocking off your best friend, various retainers, the old king, and half of Scotland probably is not the best way to gain political advancement. In 11th grade your reading of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should have made it clear that one's worth as a human being has nothing to do with one's skin color or one's class and everything to do with how one treats other people.

This year William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury taught you that even freshmen at Harvard can have very bad days. And you might not have known three months ago when you read John Milton's epic poem that today you too would be, like Adam and Eve, cast out of Paradise or at least a reasonable facsimile of it as far as schools go. Unlike Adam and Eve, though, you will always be welcomed back. But like them you will have to make your own way now, with the world all before you. Providence may guide you, but the choice of where to go and what to do when you get there will belong entirely to you.

So as you step away from us remember some of the essential lessons that your books and your teachers have tried to teach you: walk with a little humility, assume responsibility for yourself and others, in dark times remember there is always someone who loves you, and a good joke, as long as it's not at anyone's expense but your own, is a mighty good thing. (That last one is taken from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, which you didn't read, but really ought to.)

So out you go, fit company for yourself and others. We will miss you.

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Faculty Speaker: Bobby Asher, High School History Teacher

Thank you, Class of 2007, I am sincerely honored.

Now if I were a teacher at St. Albans, where I went to high school, today I'd be standing before you in my graduation robe, perhaps a bit jealous of my colleagues whose multi-colored hoods and sleeve bars, signifying their various advanced degrees, would make my plain black bachelor's robe—simple, but slimming—appear rather ordinary.

But this is GDS, and I'm wearing a suit. It's a new suit, by the way, that my parents bought me for the occasion, so I guess I should be thanking them, too.

Congratulations, graduates. Getting to today is really no small feat. You've fought through tremendous difficulties, struggles that only your generation understands.

Many of you have had to make your way, navigating the mean streets of Chevy Chase, Potomac, and McLean. All of you soldiered on in your car seats, as you headed off to your pre-arranged play-dates. You endured chaffing from your bicycle helmets and avoided trans-fats. You steadfastly braved the isolation of the dreaded time-out, and a few of you beat all the odds and even survived peanut allergies.

Today is a day of reflection. Although for some of you, it's not your first day of reflection at GDS, thankfully, you don't have to report this one to colleges.

As a father of three daughters myself, none of whom has reached the middle school as of yet, I'm not sure how qualified I am to be giving advice to parents of teenagers. In fact, I'm not sure how qualified I am as a father at all. I remember, during my oldest daughter's first year at GDS, a conversation we had in the car on the way to the Lower/Middle School...

Seeking to start my day with a little affirmation, I asked her, "Who's the toughest guy in the world?"

Without hesitation, she responded, "Brian Bobo" (her PE teacher at the time).
Although it wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for, I understood her position.
Daunted, but determined, I pushed on, "Who's the second toughest guy in the world?"
This time she paused for a moment.
"Jesus Christ?"
Clearly it was time to cut my losses.

Still, I do feel that while today is primarily about the students, it is also a day for parents, and, having learned my place, I will turn to a couple of better-qualified sources.

Several weeks ago, on the advice of a mother at Prince William Forest, I picked up a copy of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel. [By the way, when a mom recommends a really good book about parenting, it's kind of like a "friend" offering you a breath mint]. At any rate, I was struck by one passage in particular. In it, the author advises us, as loving, sensitive parents, not to measure our children's mettle by their moods, their grades, or their social standing. "Look," she says, "for your child's capacity for reverence, for gratitude, and for compassion."

In one of my favorite books, given to me by my wife (I seem to have a lot of people encouraging me to learn more about parenting), Tim Russert offers his advice: "We must teach our children that they are never, never, entitled, but that they are always, always loved."

And now for the students, for the Class of 2007, I do have a message.

The education you've received at GDS isn't meant to be the same as that you could have received at scores of high schools—in DC or across the country. You've been given an education that says it's not enough to have a skill. Not enough to have read all the books or to know all the facts. We might tease ourselves occasionally, but at GDS, values really do matter.

Among of host of ideals, GDS places a premium on freedom.

And by this, I don't just mean the opportunity to go to Subway or Quiznos for lunch or to choose between the chicken shwarma or the Lebanese Celebration at Café Olé.

At GDS we grant you far greater freedoms, and, it is by design—part and parcel of what we do here.

Recently I was struck as I reviewed a column in the New York Times written by Thomas Friedman. Originally I had chosen the article for my ninth-graders because it talked about China's place in the rapidly "flattening" world.

Interestingly, in a country that has enjoyed unprecedented economic growth, Chinese educators are now calling for a new national strategy, one designed to make China a so-called "innovation country." As hard as they have worked to develop their industrial sector, the Chinese have failed to impact the world economy in any pioneering way. Theirs is an economy based on mass production of commodities typically designed somewhere else. What holds China back, Friedman argues is freedom—or lack thereof.

"It is very hard," he argues, "to produce a culture of innovation in a country that censors Google." Rigor and competence, without freedom, will take China only so far.

As I read the article a second and third time, it dawned on me, what Friedman was talking about in its ideal sense was GDS—a school that emphasizes both "rigor and competence" and freedom.

I always laugh when people talk about GDS being too loosey-goosey. As everyone one of these graduates before you can attest, while our students are granted a considerable amount of freedom, they work uncommonly hard. Our curriculum is nothing, if not rigorous. Heck, our kids staged a sit-in to protest the shortening of library hours.

As Friedman writes, "Freedom without rigor and competence will take us only so far."

And herein lies the challenge: in a world with so much freedom and so many possibilities, it becomes increasingly difficult to make decisions—particularly when one comes from a school that doesn't always make them for you. The process can become even more menacing in the information age—in the high-speed world of the Internet, of Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Ask Yves.

In fact, when it came time to write my speech, pressured by my seniors who said, "Don't worry, you just have to be funny," my first impulse was to get on the Web.

I googled "Funny Graduation Speech" and got 749 hits in .25 seconds (and I didn't even click on the "I'M FEELING LUCKY" button)

After about two hours of jumping from site to site, I finally found what I was looking for—I believe it was About.com that had the best advice:
"During the graduation ceremony, you want to say a few words to the eager audience. . . . Very often, people don't realize that a funny graduation quote always works with audiences. Use one to add mirth to your speech. After googling "mirth" to figure out what it was, I eagerly scanned the list of "funny graduation quotes," I'll share the first two.

1. Your schooling may be over, but remember that your education still continues [Not funny]
2. A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success. [Funny, but we don't wear caps and gowns]

So much for the Internet. A few summers ago, on the advice of my now 96-year-old grandfather [Apparently even he seems to think I could stand a measure of self-improvement], I read a book called The Paradox of Choice, by a guy named Barry Schwartz at Swarthmore.

In it, he put forth the idea—supported with loads of research—that most people are terrible decision-makers. Most of us often don't know what we want, and the prospect of deciding often causes us not only jitters but real anguish. "Unlimited choice," he writes, "can produce genuine suffering."

In a nutshell, what Schwartz is talking about is someone like me at the Cheesecake Factory. I'm assuming that most of you have been to the Cheesecake Factory, but then again, given that there are probably 10,000 restaurants in the DC metropolitan area, maybe I'm wrong. At any rate, it can be an absolutely overwhelming experience. First of all, the menu is spiral-bound. It has 17 subsections. In addition to 32 varieties of cheesecake (I counted), they offer 26 different appetizers, 55 some-odd entrees, 15 salads, and 8 different Smoothies. The panoply of possibilities is paralyzing [How'd you like that for alliteration?].

Should I get the Jambalaya Pasta or the Bang-Bang Chicken and Shrimp? The Thai Lettuce Wraps or the Tex-Mex Eggrolls?

Invariably, I order the Shepherd's Pie, and spend the rest of the meal eying everyone else's plates, convinced I've made the wrong decision.

In an effort to help us, Schwartz talks about the difference between "maximizing" and "satisficing." A maximizer, he says, is someone who "can't be certain that she has found the best sweater unless she's looked at all the sweaters," "She can't know that she is getting the best price until she's checked out all the prices."

Schwartz's suggestion is that we should all become "satisficers"—sweater-purchasers "content with the merely excellent as opposed to the absolute best." People who find joy in their Shepherds' Pie. It is a remarkably tasty dish. And the portions are generous enough for two really.

What Schwartz worries about is that the overwhelming amount of choice—the 37 varieties of dog food, 26 brands of soup, and 14 types of bagged lettuce at Safeway—is turning us all into maximizers. Maximizers, he says, are prone to misery and depression.

In a world of shopping malls and cable television, Amazon.com and Wal-Mart, E-Bay and E-;Harmony, how in the world does one choose a career or a mate, let alone a major or courses from a college catalogue?

In my AP Psychology course, we take a version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality test based on some of Carl Jung's ideas. After completing a battery of multiple-choice questions, test-takers receive their all-important letters, which indicate the degree to which one is an I or an E, an S or an N, a T or an F, or a J or a P. For today's purposes, I'm going to focus on the J/P distinction.

One's Jness or one's P... (Well, the extent to which one is a P") reflects the manner in which a person makes decisions.

Js, or Judgers, are people who tend to like having things decided. Js prefer a planned, orderly way of life; they like to have things settled and organized, they feel more comfortable when decisions are made. Js like to bring life under control as much as possible.

Ps, or Perceivers, are people who'd rather avoid making decisions. They tend to focus on taking in information rather than on making decisions. They like to delay final decisions in order to get more information. Ps prefer a more flexible and spontaneous way of life.

Now, while I know there are a number of Js out there—you, with your color-coded, annotated Hoppers and your orderly, prioritized To-Do lists.

We Ps, however, struggle with decisions. While you map out the week, the year (and your lives), we feel confined by plans. We see them as restrictions, limitations on possible choices...

"Sure I'd love to go to Mark and Katherine's for dinner on October 17th," I say. But what I'm thinking is closure. While I honestly can't think of anything I'd rather do, now nothing else is possible for that evening. Nothing. Can't even go to The Cheesecake Factory for Shepherd's Pie.

In GDS fashion, I'm not really sure what I am telling you to do, or whether we as teachers really should tell people what to do. Somehow after four years of what I call "appropriate ambiguity," you're probably not ready for a directive.

And as a self-proclaimed "P," I want to appear "loose and casual" and allow you to "stay open" to possibilities.

So, in closing, I want to offer you some comforting information, followed by a brief story. First, the information.

Making decisions is difficult, but, as Christopher Caldwell writes, we tend to lose sight of our human resilience when we make big choices. People are constantly amazed that so many things they had dreaded—from misguided relationships to faulty career moves—often, as they say, "turn out for the best."

We have an enormous capacity for happiness. The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.

And now for the final story.

It's from a graduation that took place several years ago at a small school in Vermont. Because the school had only 14 graduates, each student was given a few minutes to speak. One of the graduates began her speech by acknowledging how much the school had challenged and inspired her individuality. During the middle of it, in an attempt to express the spirituality of the day, she removed her graduation robe and concluded her speech—completely and unabashedly naked.

Within hours, the tabloids began calling everyone in the town in search of a photograph or a videotape. Apparently when the young woman dropped her robe, the audience was so shocked that no one captured the moment on film—no one except the professional videographer who'd been hired by the school to record the ceremony. Quickly, he became a very popular guy.

Having just recently opened his video-production company, the sought-after photographer was in debt, married, and anxious to start a family. But he couldn't because he had NO money and his wife needed surgery. Suddenly the tabloids were competing to buy the tape, and the offering price soared to $100,000. Could the stars have aligned more fortuitously? Here was his golden opportunity. And you know what he did: he turned down them down—all of them. He just said no. When asked about his decision, he responded without hesitation. "It wouldn't have been right," he said. "It just wouldn't have been right."

So, Class of 2007:
Embrace Your Freedom.
Make choices.
And maintain your honor.
Thank you and congratulations.

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Class of 2007 Speaker, McKenzie Fowler

Georgetown Day High School Class of 2007: I only have one question for you. Did you guys do the right thing by choosing me to speak at our graduation? In my opinion, you had much better options. The other nominees were more eloquent, vastly more mature, and tremendously wittier than I am known to be, which is why I can't believe that you all actually chose me. I think we should recount the votes, in fact I demand a recount. (pause and look at Kevin) I can wait. I'll wait until an election official from Florida comes to certify the vote. Well, I realize that at this point it would be pretty unfair and even a bit awkward to have someone trade places with me right now. So I'll give the speech, but I do want to make it clear that I still don't think the votes were counted correctly. I know we, as a class, have a reputation of never doing anything right, and this situation seems to follow in that regard. I thought that before we graduated we would get at least one thing right. Maybe stop playing with girls, or learn to appreciate Shakespeare. But unfortunately our class continues to make unwise decisions. I know it sounds weird coming from me, but honestly, you all would have been much better off voting for Eliza Hecht. She would have said something memorable. I seriously doubt that anything I have to say will be at all meaningful. You all know that I'm no where near as responsible or organized as Julia Halperin, so she would have been a much better choice. The only reason I started writing this at eleven-thirty last night was because I was afraid that one more missed assignment would get my college acceptance rescinded. Contrary to what some may have been expecting, there will be very little if any humor in my speech. Laura Gilbert's speech would have been funny and she wouldn't even have had to pull an all-nighter, although trying to get an extension may have crossed her mind. I'm not sure if it was due to my level of fatigue, but early this morning, asking for an extension seemed like a really good idea.

Last night as I navigated my way through the SparkNotes website, just as I do before starting any GDS assignment, I realized that this would be my last time visiting the web page as a GDSer. I got a little choked up and quickly became misty eyed, but just as quickly, I felt relieved. I know all of you feel at least a little bit relived to be graduating from GDS. We've been so stressed out for almost four years. Focusing on getting good grades, trying to excel in our extracurricular activities, worrying about getting into college, and in Jason's case, trying to get me to like him. When everything you've been working towards for such a long time finally comes together, it really is a huge relief.

Graduation is one of life's moments where we should all feel a sense of relief and a sense of accomplishment. So often it seemed over the last four years, that we received only a letter grade for our long hours of hard work. Sometimes we put forth tremendous effort, and still didn't get the letter grade that we felt matched our level of effort. Even when we tried our absolute best, it still sometimes wasn't enough. Many of us aren't recognized as often as we think we should be for our dedication outside of the classroom in our clubs and on our sports teams. When we make mistakes sometimes it seems we are remembered more for our failures than our achievements. Just one little slip-up and you're stuck with an unfavorable reputation for the rest of your high school career. Crushed hopes and dreams, lost chances, lost games, and lost friends are all bitter pills to swallow. But once we fight through the adversity the struggle should only make us stronger. High school presented us with many challenges. We met each of those challenges and made a concisous decision to succeed. The long and hard hours of work we put in only made us better and wiser students. Today we celebrate our efforts and realize that this victory was worth the fight. We may not have been rewarded for every little step that we made in the past four years, but today each of us will be recognized for the great growth we have made from ninth grade until now.

College acceptance may have felt like the ultimate reward for our diligence in high school, but graduation is truly the time that we celebrate the fruits of our labor. In the last four years we have both suffered and prospered. Some might say that it is impossible to flourish without going through a little bit of pain. We may have fought and rebelled against GDS for piling on the work, but today we should acknowledge and thank this institution for leading us to success. Georgetown Day School has molded us into the young adults we are and has positively impacted each of our futures forever. Aristotle said it perfectly: "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

Georgetown Day High School Class of 2007: I know I told you that I only had one question for you, but I hope you don't mind if I pose a few more.

Have our roots been just bitter enough to enjoy the taste of the sweet fruit? Will the fruit be so sweet that we never forget our GDS roots? Have we been given the ability to see past our weaknesses and still find the strength to chase our dreams? Have we developed enough dreams to send our imaginations soaring? Will we stay attached to reality just enough to keep us grounded? Have we been given enough independence to develop and accomplish our own individual goals? Do we have enough dependence to know when and where to seek the help and support that we need? Will we give just as much help as we receive? Do we have enough freedom to make our own choices? Will our free choices be bounded by responsibility? Are we open-minded enough to accept conflicting views? Are we just closed-minded enough to have firm opinions? Will we ask enough questions to get all the right answers? Will we stay silent long enough to really soak up the knowledge? Has the joyfulness of our friendships given us the ability to rise above the sadness of saying goodbye? Is this final goodbye really just another beginning?

I would guess that to all of my questions you answered yes, and if so, then you have to thank GDS. We need to thank GDS for giving us the power to dream, to choose freely, to openly question, to passionately accept diversity, and to fearlessly look to the future. Goodbye GDS, and yes, I thank you!

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Class of 2007 Speaker, David Gold

A lot of people have told me that this speech should be funny, and so I recall the words of Jon Stewart, who, when prompted to "be funny" by Chris Matthews on Hardball, said "I'm not your monkey." Because, you see, there's a time for jokes, for laughter, for merriment, but this is not one of those times. Today we mourn the loss of our innocence, the loss of our warm, precious home. Never again will we be part of such a nurturing environment. There are many emotions swirling around this room, but I know that, for me, the greatest one is sadness.

I'm not sure how I said that with a straight face. College is going to be ridonkulous.

As such, I know that a lot of my classmates are eager to move on, and I did my best to keep this brief. However, I ask that you all sit patiently as I take you back, way back, to a magical time I like to call 1993.

See, apparently I didn't show sufficient "friend-making" skills in pre-school, so my parents feared that if they sent me to public school for kindergarten, I'd become a social outcast and, I suppose, eventually die alone without bearing them grandchildren. They needed a school where I'd receive the specialized attention I needed to break out of my shell, where I'd be surrounded by a select group of other socially inept kids. So, they set up an interview with Maret.

The only problem was, in those days, I didn't like to commit to activities that held no immediate benefit for me. So as the time of the interview approached and I refused to get in my mom's car, she did what all great parents do in times of crisis: she bribed me. I hopped in the car and, by all accounts, charmed the hell out of the Maret admissions staff for almost all of my visit. I say "almost all" because when it came time to leave, I allegedly walked over to my mom, and still within earshot of the admissions personnel, said, "Let's go. You owe me 20 bucks."

So it didn't look like Maret would be the best fit.

Fortunately, another bribe got me in a car to GDS, another bribe got me to keep my mouth shut, and yet another bribe got me admitted.

What I'm trying to say is, I've gone to GDS for 13 years. And if you don't think that's a long time, then you're old. A lot of kids here today don't know anything but GDS. And every member of the Class of '07 has a different story of how he or she came to be a Hopper. Some of us have been here since pre-K. Some of us grew up as far away as Indonesia, Colombia, or South Korea. Some of us backed into a red Ford Taurus out front and are in the directory if you want to exchange insurance information. But the important thing is we're all here, and we all made it. The Class of 2007, the "bad class," the class that has been warned of its less-than-stellar reputation every step of the way, is graduating every student.

I can't help but be reminded of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, part of our English 11 curriculum. Specifically, I'm reminded of a quote from when Huck is having a conversation with Miss Watson about heaven and hell. Huck narrates, "I asked if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go [to heaven], and she said, not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together."

I always thought that was charming, how Huck was content to be damned so long as he could stay with his friend. It makes me think that, while the Class of '07 has had its scapegoats, the making of our reputation, good and bad, has been a team effort. When we made inappropriate Powder Puff shirts, we all wore them to support our squad. When someone lost their off-campus privileges, there was always someone to aid them, abet them, and pick them up a sandwich from Subway. And when we got in trouble, we never turned on our own. Through it all, we may have occasionally lost our heads, but we kept our friends.

And so with Huck's poignant words in mind, I say, with pure intentions and great excitement, to the entire Class of 2007: Congratulations, and I'll see you in hell. Thank you.

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Annie Whatley, Parent Speaker

To the Board of Trustees; Board President, Joe Sellers; Head of School, Peter Branch; faculty; parents; and last, but not least, the graduates of the Georgetown Day School Class of 2007, I want to extend my sincere appreciation for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the parents. I must admit that when Peter invited me to speak, I was surprised but highly honored. I immediately thought of what my mother is thinking in heaven about this day—me standing here in front of such a distinguished class of graduates from a school like Georgetown Day School. Oh, what a day!

Over the past several weeks, I have given much thought to just how special this day is for our children, the graduates. The outstanding GDS faculty has prepared our children for a lifelong love of learning—for this we thank you! As proud parents, we have looked forward to this day—sometimes with joy and sometimes with sadness. For many of us, this day brings to mind the hazy, sometimes fuzzy, memories of our own graduations, which, according to most of our children, happened a long, long time ago.

This is a great class—generating only a few discipline concerns and notes from Kevin. You have formed a strong bond and demonstrated a genuine concern for each other. Many of you are GDS lifers—all have chosen to attend great colleges and have awesome dreams of a successful future—thank you Barbara, Chris, and Linda for your great counsel.

As parents now, and graduates ourselves only a few years ago—well, maybe slightly more than a few—we were determined to make our mark on the new world that was ahead of us. Fortunately, for most of us, the photos of that first independent thrust into the world are fading as they sit in the bottom of our memory boxes in the deep crevices of our attics. However, we still hold those memories close to our hearts. Those memories are invisible connectors which join us with you—our children—the graduates of the GDS Class of 2007.

The world in which we now live is much different and broader than we remember it when we entered it at our graduations from high school.

Technology has provided a changed landscape in which you—our children—will be operating. Information resources are at your fingertips and communication is much more option-oriented than we, your parents, knew it—and based on our text messaging phone bills, certainly more expensive! We are forever grateful to the faculty for encouraging our children to continually expand their frames of references.

I must admit that sometimes it was difficult allowing my daughter Chrissy to fumble and explore options in her own time frame, when I wanted to quickly point her in the direction of the answer which I thought was most appropriate.

What I now realize is that my answer would have eliminated the self-learning process which allowed her to get to her answer. Her Dad, Steve, however, was much better at the hands-off approach—allowing for the mistakes and bumps along the road as she explored ideas and options of her own thinking. He was much more patient than I, and allowed the freedom of the process to produce the answer which was best for her learning experience. Thank you, Steve.

The education that she and all of her GDS classmates have received at this wonderful institution serves to support their inquisitive nature and allows them to determine what path and goals they will pursue.

I do not know what is in store for each of you. But I do know that you are fully prepared. Be fully who you are—let the world get used to you. You can be the trumpet for peace, a voice to end wars and genocide, racism, and prejudice, and the brains behind a cure for AIDS and a safe and clean environment. Throughout your lives, your best friends have been those who remind you that you are special, that you have great gifts to give to others throughout the world, that you have the power to realize your dreams and make real the dreams of others.

Pay close attention to your friends' emotions, and seek to help them if they seem troubled.

It is important to set standards for those who seek to lead you, politically. Support leaders who will promote peaceful solutions to global problems.

Accept only those leaders who lead through a better vision of a better future. Great leaders inspire, motivate, encourage, and empower. They possess integrity, honesty, fairness, dignity, and respect for themselves and others. They strive to live their lives through service to others. At GDS, you have been taught the importance of these characteristics. You have the foundation for what it takes to be a leader— go for it!

Take your role as a responsible citizen very seriously. Take full responsibility for mature self-governance.

We live in a world where the environment is making us sick, where the divide between the "haves" and "have-nots" is expanding, the poverty rate continues to increase, and the number of citizens without health insurance is rising to alarming levels. You have been empowered through your GDS education to address and take action on all of these issues. Many of which you have already taken on here at GDS through a comprehensive community service program, which strives to foster a lifetime concern for others. Thank you, Elsa.

At GDS, service to others is woven into its core values and is fully integrated into the curriculum at all levels of the school.

You are prepared to take on the next phase of life—college—where you will continue to learn, explore, and serve communities throughout the world.

I am sure we can count on you to always remember that your choices in life are circumscribed largely by arbitrary rules, and to always respect the value of the choices of others and your own shortcomings.

Look carefully at what other people are doing and try to understand the context of their actions before making unwarranted judgments.

Rightly or wrongly, everyone will not share your desires or your perceptions. You must never forget the GDS teachings of tolerance and freedom of thought, as they allow you to go outside the blinders imposed by your own culture.

I am sure that each of us here today thinks that you are the best of the best, and we know our world will become brighter with you in it as full participants.

Do not let anyone steer you from those things which are close to your heart. Be not afraid, for you are always supported by those in this audience, especially your parents and the Georgetown Day School family. The world is waiting for you, and we will always be connected by the heartstrings of our love.

As you go forward in life, I want to leave you with a few words of wisdom, which have shaped my life:

Speak with integrity and say only what you mean in truth and love. Strive to not have to say, "I'm sorry".

What others say and do is a result of their own life experiences and reality. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you can never be a victim.

Trust your instincts—if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.

Always do your best. When you have done your best, you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret. Don't be attached to the outcomes.

Remember GDS: You have just been inducted into the GDS Alumni Association. It is important to continue your active membership, keep in touch with your classmates, and give back to GDS—through service and resources.

Call your parents, regularly—just to check in, not just for a check.

Make the most of your life's gifts to build a better life for yourself and others, full of love, respect, laughter, and strength to overcome sadness and obstacles.

This is your world. Each of you can bring about real and lasting changes in it.

The change begins with you: be the change you wish to see in the world.

Congratulations. We love you dearly!

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Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2008.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2006.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2005.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2004.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2003.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2002.

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