Good evening ladies and gentlemen, friends, family! Welcome!
It is so good to see all of you here tonight to join with all of us in celebrating the accomplishments of this tremendous group of people seated before me … the class of 2008! Congratulations!
It is a very special honor for me to be able to stand here and speak to all of you. As many of you already know, I too came to Gilroy for the first time four years ago. I too was a freshman in 2004. I have, in a way, grown up with all of you. And it was always my secret desire to be able to graduate with you today.
I think it is a great testament to all of you that when you were freshmen, I though, "I like teaching freshmen. I want to teach freshmen from now on." And when you were seniors, I thought, "I like teaching seniors. I want to teach seniors from now on." However, now that you are graduates, I may just have to face the fact that I really just like teaching you and I am not sure what to do from now on.
Over the past four years, I have had the privilege of teaching you a few things. I have taught you the definition of the word vexation and the concept of irony, among other things. And my colleagues have taught you about science and math and history, about languages, art, music, and computers. But the one thing that I believe we all think it is most important for you to learn is something that it is equally hard for us to teach you. And that is how to be good people. Fortunately for us, that is something you all seem to have known long before you got here. It is something you seem to have just had inside of you.
Now, I do not mean to disappoint you, but being good people does not make you perfect. Even as much as I love you, I do not think you are perfect. But you are good. You see, being a good person means knowing that when you make a mistake and you should apologize, you do. And I have seen you all do that on many occasions. It means that if you make a mistake and you can learn from it, you try to do so. Again, I have had first hand opportunity to witness you trying to do that many times. Finally, when a good person makes a mistake, he or she tries to never make the same mistake again. I have noticed this quality in many of you, and so I know that you are good people.
Furthermore, good people try to be kind to those who need kindness. This does not just mean reaching out to the needy or trying to protect the environment, though I have seen these qualities in many of you. It means trying to be kind to others in one's everyday interactions. And you do that. I know. In the time I have been at Gilroy High, I have often snapped at you and you have treated me with patience. I have been unclear about my rules and you have treated me with respect. You have always treated me with affection and humor and that is how I know you are good people.
If you take these qualities with you, if you treat others with kindness, allow humor into your everyday life, admit when you are wrong, and try to learn and grow from your mistakes, then your lives will be as successful, and more so, than they have been here at GHS.
See, that was advice. I kind of snuck it in there for you. When I was preparing to write this speech, I told my friend, who had been a teacher here, that I was nervous. I told her I had no idea what advice I had left to give you. And she said, "It doesn't matter. They probably would not listen to it anyway." And I said, "But they will humor me." I know that because of that kindness thing I mentioned earlier.
So here it is. Humor me, if you will. The best piece of advice I can leave you with is to find something to do in your professional life that you enjoy. Because, if you like what you do, then you will not feel, as so many Americans do, reluctant to get out of bed and go to work in the morning. You will get up and go because you know it will be fun while you are there. Enjoying your work is so much more important than making a lot of money or driving a fancy car. It can make all the difference in your life. I only know this because I know how much I have enjoyed teaching all of you these past four years.
So once again, congratulations class of 2008, and good luck!
Mirra Shernock is an English and journalism teacher at Gilroy High School.
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