Valedictorian Address
Kevin Quinn
[Please Read the CAVEAT]
Good
Afternoon parents, friends, family, faculty, invited guests, and the Class of 98. We've
spent four years here at Woburn High School and today celebrates and congratulates us for
those years. As a class, we have come to show that we can do a lot when we put our minds
to it. We stand for a lot of what is good in America's youth today, and I think that the
community as a whole can be proud of us for what we do and for all the stereotypes of
today's youth that we try not to represent. I truly am honored to have been a part of a
class like this.
Now, though, we must look towards the future. Today is called commencement, meaning the
beginning, because it marks a new start to our lives. One of more independence and
freedom, where we make our own decisions, and have to live with the consequences, whether
they're good or bad. To paraphrase a famous TV character, "There comes an event in
everyone's life that will change everything. How you react at that moment could determine
the course your life takes."
For many of us, this could be that event. We have to react to the change
that this graduation brings to our lives. No longer do we have to think about getting to
homeroom on time to avoid a late session, but now we have to worry about what to do with
the rest of our lives. Whether we accept this change as a challenge or try and ignore it
could be a decisive factor in how our futures begin.
The future should certainly be embraced at a time like this, but our
successes in the past here should and will not be erased. However, Cato once said,
"The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new ones." So,
as our high school careers are over and we have already proven ourselves here by making it
through all four years, we now have to solidify these successes with new accomplishments
in other areas. Be it college, work, the army, or any other area, if we want to continue
to make a good name for ourselves, we have to continually prove that we are worthy of that
good name.
Continuing our successes will not be easy, as I'm sure many of the things we had to do
to succeed here were not easy, but if there are any non - academic lessons that I will
take away from my years in high school, it's that hard work provides a lot more
satisfaction and recognition than an easy grade. Arthur Helps once said that the worst use
of success is to boast of it. Here we are, more than 200 of us, celebrating one of the
greatest successes of our young lives as we complete 12 years of education. We have every
right to be proud of ourselves today. However, we can't just sit back and relax now that
this phase of our lives is over. In order to secure our futures as the leaders of tomorrow
and to leave our mark, we have to persevere and keep accomplishing things.
Few people can be considered successful by accomplishing only one thing in their life.
No, the true success stories are those that involve people who try hard to succeed again
and again, no matter what they have already accomplished. Would Michael Jordan be
considered the greatest basketball player ever if after one NBA championship, he hung it
up and said, "That's enough for me."? Of course not. Would Harrison Ford be
considered the biggest box office draw in the world if after Star Wars, he stopped making
movies? No. If Edison had stopped inventing things after he became successful, Harrison
Ford wouldn't even have had a chance to make those movies.
T.H. Huxley said, "The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to
hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher." Today,
our diplomas put our collective foot on the first rung of the ladder. We now have to climb
higher until we reach the level at which we want to be. Whether you want to make it to the
top or not is your own choice. Now, as for today, we all will walk away from this event
with a piece of paper that says we graduated from Woburn High. No matter what we chose to
do with our time here, we all must now take this piece of paper into the world and do
something with it. Only we can choose how our education here will serve us in the future.
Whatever you choose, I wish everyone the best of luck.
Thank you.