Behind the Graduation Speech

I posted the graduation speech with a photo of five former students from my AP Literature class, and the photo reminds me of all I didn’t get to say. A few things happened during the drafting of the speech that made me uneasy. First was that my first draft lapsed into the litany of accomplishment. I quickly got over the litany, but in doing so, removed for myself the opportunity to praise some of the individuals and events that were personally meaningful to me. I was on Drood, which had incredible energy, and Katie Oxman, who I witnessed playing waffle ball with Emma, perhaps the only such sighting ever. But I didn’t even get to the Courant, not to Alex Bloedel (who is in the picture), Caroline Casavant and Olivia McLean, not to Dylan Hsu or any of the juniors about whom I have awfully nice things to say, but wouldn’t dare lest they know.

By the time I was halfway through the first draft I had already hit my approximate time limit, and I was dancing around specifics because I felt a need to be inclusive. So out the window went both baby and bathwater.

But I wish I’d had the time, and the audience, the interest, to mention the so many names worth mentioning in the speech. I sent a copy to Taylor Clarke the morning of the speech, and wore the Duke National Championship t-shirt she gave me as I delivered the speech (an interesting sentence if you interpret the order in which I’ve used modifiers). A few weeks before, I had been invited to Lisa Bonarrigo’s graduation party, so I was feeling a connectedness there.

I wish Bo had the chance to speak.

But what about everyone else who has given me inspiration? What about all those students from the class of 2001 who gave so much to me – the Narissa Changs, Katie Slemps, Brad Liptons, Jeremy Krinsleys, Matt Dorias, Mike Westfals, Melanie Chuens, Caroline Crosses…the list goes on? Emily Jones, anyone? What about all the Courant people who have kept in touch – Katie Stinchfield, Molly Carroll, Neal Suidan, Sara Sorcher, Dan Duray, Leigh Kiniry, Christine Friar? Or the ones who are still in college, like pretty much everyone from the Class of 2008 staff, much less the guys from the class of 2008 basketball team? Or Erika, Ginny and Melissa? What about the Hughes family, or the Fagers, or the Sissons? Or the Adam Markiewiczes and Kelly Budrawiches, whose minds have a certain creative genius that didn’t lend itself well to achieving in high school? Just because the name isn’t here doesn’t mean I can’t point to a specific moment as a gift from that person.

And then there are all the people who have overcome adversity, who I won’t name just because I don’t know if their adversity is anyone’s business.

And the teachers who came before me – can you say Mary Smith? She’s at the top of a list that has its share of math teachers and science teachers who were creating and rethinking even thirty five years into their careers.

It’s crazy, man, what I had to leave out. I could give so many names, so many moments. Even here, by naming names, I’ve left out others that I think of on a regular basis. It’s nice to have a job that doesn’t allow you to adequately recognize all the individuals who have inspired you.

I have one last thing to say before I complete this really incomplete thing. Andrew Leslie.