JCHS Valedictorian Challenges Graduates to 'Live a Worthwhile Life'

Seeing his classmates together in a single group for the final time, James Caldwell High School Class of 2013 valedictorian Chris Dalla Riva challenged his fellow seniors at the graduation ceremony on Thursday at Bonnel Field to try and create the “same peace that we’ve had here and to take advantage of said peace to live a worthwhile life.”

Dalla Riva had the highest grade-point average among around 200 graduating seniors, scoring a 97.45 percent. In addition, he took various AP courses at the high school, including Spanish and calculus, among others.

While Dalla Riva said he didn’t set out to be valedictorian when he was a freshman in 2009, he said it was his hard work that won him that honor.

“It was a nice moment,” said Dalla Riva when he found out he would be the graduating class’ valedictorian. “It’s nice ... to get recognized for putting in a lot of effort and hard work academically related.”

Outside of the classroom, Dalla Riva played four years of baseball for the Chief. This year, he split his time as a designated hitter and playing in the outfield.

In the fall, he will attend Boston College, in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Dalla Riva said he was drawn to the college both for its Jesuit approach to education, and its sports culture.

“Since it’s a Jesuit school, you have to take classes in everything,” said Dalla Riva, “and I sort of like that idea of being well versed. ... There is such a variety of things that interest me.

“Boston College is also very into their sports, and I am excited to go to a bigger school where it’s going to be rah-rah with football and hockey.”

The following is the speech Dalla Riva presented to his classmates last Thursday:

Primarily, I’d like to issue my thanks to the administration, the Board of Ed, the faculty whose immense dedication has made this all possible, to Ms. Fraley and Mrs. Broffman who have both taught me much and helped me revise and edit this very speech, to my parents and sisters for putting up with my complaints and giving me help whenever I needed it, to my grandparents for continual academic inspiration and advice, and to the class because without you, well, we’d have no class. Pun intended.

Now, in an effort to forget that horrible joke, ladies, gentlemen, and children of all ages, I pose to you a question: What…just…happened? Because to me, high school was one big “what just happened?” moment made up of a bunch of smaller “what just happened?” moments.

We have our “What…just…happened?” when you walk into JCHS your freshmen year, finally called up to the academic big leagues, and you are suddenly awestruck by the fact that you are now in the same school as people that have the ability to grow facial hair. We also have our “What…just…happened?” [confused tone] when you walk out of one of Mrs. Callaghan’s Hamlet tests, or any test for that matter, and you’re pretty sure that she made up like 5 characters.

Conversely, we have our “What…just…happened?!” [moment], when you can’t believe that you did what you just did; when you’re filled with uncontained euphoria; when you are Valentina Corsaniti drilling the final penalty kick in a shootout to beat the evil West Essex Knights and send your team to the Essex County Tournament semi-finals; when you are Julie Eller and rock your solos night after night in Kiss Me Kate, or when you are my dear cousin, Mike Dalla Riva, running off the wrestling mat to dive into your coach's arms after having your arm raised as Essex County Champion.

And together, those moments aggregate to create the one big “What just happened?” moment of high school. And I say moment because as cliché as it sounds, it feels like 35 seconds ago I was trekking up to Chris Hreniuk’s house on a cold, winter morning, to watch SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays with his father and brother, and eventually my cousin John, and then to head off on the walk to school. And now, just an instant later, I’m trekking out of this school still with many old friends, my buddy Chris included, and many friends anew.

But I must admit, the moment that I spent here was a moment of general peace. Truthfully, we had a very diverse grade: athletic beasts like Sonny Puzzo to academic geniuses like Emily Scott, musical virtuosos like Trent Fillebrown to mathematical whizzes like Sean Buckley, bellowing baritones like Greg Mercado to Sweet Sopranos like Giselle Fernandez, people as tall as Pat Gavin to as short as Casey Maw, as witty as Derek Davis to as presidential as Tom Rowland, as dedicated to our sports teams as Mike Collucci to as friendly as Rachel Edelstein, and the list goes on.

Yet amidst this diversity, there was a peace, a peace so strange that it seemed to destroy almost all social barriers. A peace so strange that it allowed somebody like Andrew Goodman to collectively personify the athlete, being football captain, musician, being a percussionist in the band, and scholar, being probably the smartest person that I know.

A peace so strange that it allowed for a unique fraternity to develop in all facets of JCHS life. From the baseball team to the soccer team to the wrestling team to the lacrosse team to the football team to places as unexpected as the art classroom, to, my personal favorite place, the woodshop, a brotherhood developed because of the high character of the senior class. A peace so strange that I will miss it dearly, a peace that I hope to one day find again.

Now, as we all prepare to go our separate ways, whether it be to a place of higher education, the workforce, or just to our couches to keep up with Kardashians, I challenge each and every one of us to try to create the same peace that we’ve had here and to take advantage of said peace to live a worthwhile life.

Then, one day, when we’re 85, clearly as hip as ever, tweeting about our bingo winning streaks, we can look back on our lives and say, “I’m glad I loved, I’m glad I failed, I’m glad I cried, I’m glad I gave my best, I’m glad that I took advantage of that opportunity, I’m just glad that I was alive,” and can gladly not say, “What…just…happened?”