Good morning! I am honored to welcome all parents, teachers, faculty, distinguished guests and the XYZ High School Class of 2017.
I?d like to begin with a question: Does a 65 constitute mediocrity, while a 100, perfection? While our education system may have ingrained this notion in our minds, remember that after today, there may not be report cards to measure our achievement. Because life is something that we experience, not something that we complete, we are no longer cloistered by a ?core curriculum? or daily routine. Parting with the asylum of our high school years, we are governed only by our instinct and our judgment.
Without progress reports and standardized testing, how then, can we measure if we are successful? Some may perceive wealth as an indicator of accomplishment, but then must we equate poverty with failure? Others may see their position as evidence of their success ? such an assessment is easy but superficial. It may be tempting to measure our success by the knowledge that we have attained through our education; as graduates today, we have all succeeded in that regard. Our task now, however, is to apply that which we have learned.
The philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson defined success as the following: ?To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!?
Success, then, is a relative term; we may apply it to measure the quality of the change we engender, the lives we transform, and the relationships we build. With titles such as doctor or president, it is what we do with our influence that imbues our titles with value. With what we have learned, knowledge prepares us to face the challenges of our generation, equips us to fight inequity in health, wealth, and opportunity, and guides us in our future endeavors. With dedication and ambition, we can defeat ignorance and accomplish the extraordinary.
The true measure of success may not be manifest at first sight. The gifts we have received from XYZ High School and this community, however, have provided us with our first steps toward its eventual discovery. With this in mind, I challenge you to define your success and live up to your own measures with passion and commitment. If you see yourself as having succeeded, others will follow suit. Good luck and congratulations to you all!
