Congrats GHS Class Of 2013!

Families, friends, community members, Guilford High School faculty and staff, and the Board of Education: on behalf of the 269 graduates of the Guilford High School Class of 2013 seated before you, thank you. Thank you for teaching us to persevere in times of uncertainty, for supporting us as we have fostered our talents, and for guiding us as we have begun to find our ways in life. On behalf of the 269 students seated before you, thank you.

            To my classmates: we did it! We may have been the first class not to sleep over at Camp Hazen in 5th grade, the class whose 8th grade trip to Ellis Island was cancelled by a swine flu scare, and the class whose commencement was delayed 12 days thanks to the work of Hurricane Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo; but today, we are graduating because no obstacle – be it of human, microbial, or meteorological nature – can detract from the value of the achievement that this day represents.

            Our hard work, dedication, and persistence from our first days of kindergarten to these last few days at GHS have earned us freedom from CAPT, the College Board, seemingly incessant homework, and a 7:25-2:08 schedule. Powerful as our stamped diplomas will be, however, not even they will be able to hold back the endless streams of questions about our futures.

            Whenever I see a neighbor, family friend, or someone who insists they know me despite my not having any idea of who they are, it is all I can do to slip out a little “hello” before I am bombarded with “so what school are you going to next year?” Trying not to get overly exasperated about having to produce an answer yet again, I say, “I am going to Johns Hopkins University, but in the fall of 2014. I’m taking next year off from formal education to spend time working and volunteering.”  

I used to expect that my non-traditional response would invite some non-traditional questions, but more often than not, the interrogation that follows consists only of the stock ‘questions to ask a graduating high school senior:’ for example, “what are you going to study when you do start school? What are your interests? What are you going to do after college? What do you want to do in life?”

The conversation typically winds down around here when I answer with “Those are really good questions that I really don’t know the answers to.”

            Of course, I say this somewhat jokingly, hoping to release some of the tension I am feeling. But I am left wondering why it is that talking about the future – a time of opportunity for discovery and growth – is so uncomfortable in the first place?

I’ve come to realize that it is in part because we are being asked the wrong questions. People have always told us what Emerson once said, that “life is a journey, not a destination.” But now, when they ask “what” – what schools or professions are we entering, what are we going to pursue, and what do we want to do with our lives? – they are giving us the message that the destination is the most important after all.

We need to bring the focus back to the journey. We need to ask not what do we want to do but how do we want to do it? Making this change in perspective will allow us to transition from thinking in terms of the destination – “I want to be a doctor, farmer, mechanic, engineer,” – to thinking in terms of the journey – I want to live boldly, adventurously, thoughtfully, passionately.” If we can form clear ideas of how we want to live and if we can learn to hold true to those ideas, we will be able to overcome obstacles and thrive, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

We are a class of incredibly talented athletes, artists, leaders, workers, and thinkers. Our potential is evident. Now, if we can combine these skills with a genuine dedication to our ideals of how we want to live, we will mark the world in unprecedented ways.

Thank you.

Valedictory Address by Jackson Cole Macor: 

When I was younger, I imagined that one day my parents would set me down and reveal to me the metaphorical glue that held society together: a literal social contract which individuals signed as a pledge that they would act in accordance with the will of society and would generally refrain from instilling chaos. However, this naïve notion of how the world worked never came to be, and I slowly began to appreciate how truly miraculous and absurd civilization is. I still find it difficult to believe that seven billion human beings can live on this planet for one second in a state that is not complete anarchy; and keep in mind these are the same individuals for whom a disproportionate amount of thought is directed toward purely hedonistic pursuits. The more you think about it, the more ridiculous it all appears to be.

            In my present state of mind, the fact that we can gather here today to celebrate twelve years of formal education seems to be a violation of the laws of entropy. One only has to watch CNN for ten minutes to realize what a mess we have created, and that society functions not as a well-oiled machine, but as some poorly built steam engine forever on the verge of catastrophic failure. Only our mutual fear of the alternatives suppresses our apparent free will just enough to prevent us from destroying this monument to humanity we call civilization. There is no greater force at work that maintains this barely controlled pandemonium. As Oscar Wilde said, “Society exists only as a mental concept; in reality there are only individuals.”

            Continuing in this vein, I choose not to view this ceremony merely as a testament to our achievements. Graduating from high school in my opinion is little more than a stepping stone in one’s life; in other words, it is not an end for which one strives. Instead, I see graduation as a symbolic recognition that we will someday be your successors as the bearers of civilization which, more than just our governments and civil organizations, is the cumulative knowledge, wisdom, and works of several hundred generations of people just like us who faced similar if not the same challenges. Furthermore, as I have been trying to emphasize, this task is rather difficult, as few of us act in a conscious way to preserve society. Instead, we generally act in self-interest based on little more than pure whim, which on average results in a state of mere dissonance as opposed to one of complete cacophony.

            The essential question you should be asking yourself is whether you believe this group of individuals before you is ready to take the reins and become society. While I believe our generation is not necessarily characterized by an abundance of positive qualities, I do believe the Guilford High School class of 2013 shines as a bright spot in the sea of pessimism I have presented. This is because in the past four years, I have observed many of my peers develop from adolescents who displayed only a primitive level of consciousness into intelligent and thoughtful human beings. I have been immensely impressed by their talents and surprised by their ability to think and create autonomously to positive ends. Thus, with this group at least, as its members are educated in the coming years, whether formally or by life itself, I have confidence that they may soon be ready to bear the responsibility of maintaining our collective legacy called civilization.

            However, if I am to leave you and the class of 2013 with one principal thought, it is that society does not exist. We are it; and as a result, the affairs of each individual do in a small but noticeable way impact our way of life and the peace or lack thereof which we may or may not enjoy. No single raindrop believes it is the cause of the flood, but obviously the flood did not appear spontaneously. Similarly, while your influence on the world may be minute, it is not zero. I am not trying to preach some banal message on social responsibility, but rather I want you to know that while society does not exist, you probably do. So, if you enjoy the benefits that come with this format of living, I suggest that you be conscious of it and act as if you wanted to preserve it. If you would prefer to live in nature, that is fine, but it certainly would be considerate of you if you did not try to actively or passively destroy civilization. In other words, simply be conscious of yourself.

            Back to the occasion at hand, I do believe the Guilford High School class of 2013 is a uniquely excellent group of individuals; that is, if civilization should collapse during our lifetime, I do not think we will have been the cause of it. In fact, I actually believe there is a good chance that we may be able to leave this world a better place than when we entered it. Whether it is through medicine, mathematics, art, music, physics, or whatever else, I do think we have the capacity to meet the challenges of this unpredictable existence into which we have been thrust and to make the most of what will definitely be an interesting and dynamic future.   

            To conclude, I genuinely thank you for your time and whatever fraction of your attention you have graciously given me, and please join me in earnestly wishing the class of 2013 good luck, though I doubt we really need it. Thank you again, and enjoy the remainder of the evening.