CHS 2013 Graduation Speech: BOE Chair Leslee Hill

Good evening.  I’m Leslee Hill, chairman of the Canton Board of Education, and it is my honor on this beautiful Canton evening to welcome administrators, faculty, staff, families, and especially the members of Canton High School’s Class of 2013.  Let me be the first to say congratulations to you on your graduation from high school! 

This is a night that celebrates a successful ending, and anticipates a bright new beginning.  It is a night you, your friends, and your families will always remember.  There will be pictures and videos, along with instagram posts and tweets.  Hugs and tears, smiles and laughter, fond farewells, and the joy of living in the moment, which, at this stage in your lives, is one of your special gifts.  And then, in the midst of all this excitement, someone is going to ask you The Big Question.  You’ve probably already heard it a few times lately - “What are you going to do?”  Well meaning people want to know your big life plans for next week, next month, and next year.  You probably already have an answer figured out, rehearsed, ready to go, when The Big Question pops up.  But think for a moment about how your answer makes you feel.  Excited, proud, nervous, confused?  Maybe a little bit of all of those, depending on your mood, and who is asking.

The theme of The Big Question will be a recurring one in your lives.  Fast forward 5 or 10 years, and it will change a bit.  You will meet someone new, and they will ask “What do you do?” – in other words, “what do you do to earn a living?”  Here is my sincerest wish for you graduates.  I hope that over the next days and weeks, when you are asked “What are you going to do?” – your answer is “I’m going to do something that I love.”  And later, when you are asked “What do you do?”  - that rehearsed answer in your mind is not about what you do to earn a living, but what you do to live. 

I hope that during your years in the Canton Schools, you have found at least one passion – something that you can’t imagine not having in your life because of the joy it brings you.  Let that passion define you to the world.  Maybe you will be able to turn that passion into what you do, maybe not.  But either way, you can still let it define you, thereby showing the world what a life lived with joy looks like.  If you can set that example, no matter what else you do, your life, and what you do to live, will be an inspiration to others. 

Two nights ago I spoke to the 6th graders, and I told them that the biggest thing they were going to learn about in Middle School was about themselves.  I didn’t let them in on the secret that those lessons won’t end with Middle School.  For you graduates, those lessons will come at a much faster pace as you enter the world beyond Canton High School.  If you have not yet discovered what you do to live, don’t worry – you are in very good company.  You are still young – trust me on this.  With time, and a willingness to keep learning about yourself, you will find what truly makes your heart sing – and then you will know that you have found what you do to live. 

As you go out from here tonight, please always remember that you all are the pride of the Canton Public Schools.  On behalf of the Board of Education, I wish you all the best, tonight and always.