Speech by 2008 Class Essayist Erin Wyatt

 

Mr. Lillenstern, Dr. Prudhon, faculty, family, friends, and Class of 2008:

         The ways we think, act, and live are determined each moment by what we’ve decided to do in the past moment. Even if it wasn’t explained like this back then, we learned all of this in kindergarten. That’s when they kept telling us to be nice and stop hitting each other. They meant, ‘decide to be nice, now’ and ‘decide to stop hurting each other, ‘now.’  Because if we didn’t decide that ‘now,’ nothing would change in the next ‘now’. True, spontaneous things happen, and sometimes we don’t stick with our decisions, but if we don’t put forth any effort, any change we make probably won’t stick around.

         You know, USJ’s been trying to implant that in our heads since pre-K. I know other schools try just as hard to teach us to live ethical and moral lives. In words for four-year-olds “Hands to yourselves; Inside voices; and Be nice”. I think most everyone in my class has had Mrs. Royer, or at least seen her classroom. Did you ever notice the multitude of signs with the same slogan, even if the order shifted from poster to poster. “Respect, Responsibility, Tolerance”? That’s the same thing we learned in pre-school, just in bigger words.

         Respect’s easy. All we have to do for that one is follow directions and quiet down to listen for a minute. The kindergarteners I taught art to for the last three years have mostly got this down. It’s a really simple thing, but it’s not composed of just what you say, but really how you say it. So often, we say what’s good and polite, but not respectful, because we don’t mean a word of it. And that’s sad because respect’s a simply thing to give.

         Responsibility’s next. Might be tougher. I, personally, still need to work on this one. But, it’s still easy if we bother to try. The basic line of this one is ‘do what you said you’re going to do.’  It kind of sounds like an essay, actually. ‘Say what you’re going to say, say it, and say what you said’ for the introduction, body, and conclusion. That could just be my brain being stuck on school-mode…  But, responsibility extends beyond school. It’s not just taking responsibility for what you did or said you’d do, but growing up. Class of 2008, the majority of us are adults. If adults act like children when we need adults, we’ve got a problem on our hands. Peter Pan’s Never Never Land may be really nice, but not much gets accomplished there.

         Tolerance, the last one of the list. We gotten some practice with this one. We do have an interesting diversity at our school, even if there’s still a lot of things that are going to be an interesting culture shock in the years to come. But, at USJ, we have different religions, different philosophies, different heritages, different backgrounds, different families, different attitudes, different styles…It goes on and on and on. There’s even more for everyone we’ll meet next year.

         Our list of virtues is complete.

         But, I’d like to add one more item to that list:  compassion. To be compassionate, you must respect the other person, you must take responsibility whether you want it or not, and you must tolerate that the person is different from you. That’s our list. Beyond that, you have to care, despite everything else and maybe because of it, too. Class of 2008, our generation and our world needs compassion, and it needs it now.

         I’ve got something for you, a poem…

Extremes fall harsh on human ears,

Knowing extremities as we do –

But extremes of life that we live and breath

Never prove quite true-

Must we all strive and fall,

Or must we run without a care?

Must we all pursue the wind,

Or must we be satisfied with air?

Must we all lose and hurt, so cold,

Or must we forget what we love dear?

Must we all sing and laugh always,

Or must we stifle gasp and tear?

Stand as one – Cliché! Cliché!-

Since, together we never stand-

Side by side, all as one.

Watch those lines of sand

Just shift, fade, and die

Like mine, and yours, and theirs,

And all who’ve ever breathed-

All ambitions, all despairs,

Tracing back through history-

Must we all stand as one

Or can we stand for once?

Must we live in pain since passed,

Or may we live each month?

Looking back as what is gone,

Trinkets never to return-

That seep into our hearts and souls,

That chill or warm or burn-

Look back at all that’s passed us by

And what we’ve passed in haste.

Look back and think a moment – just –

How it’s similar at its base,

And think – something binds us all.

Subtle, shifting, fragile thing –

Humanity’s strong siren call,

Ignored by apathy and hate –

That heinous, homicidal pair –

Jerks through lives and rips and tears-

Yet still care stands, compassions lend,

For reasons varied in the wind-

But all that matters is it’s here

While time’s still left, and we’re still here.

 

         Care about someone else, someone not like you. How many people in this room went to Sunday School when they were little?  All those years ago, I’m sure you heard “Jesus Loves the Little Children” with its, frankly, beautiful lyrics of “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.”  If Someone perfect loves you, then shouldn’t you think about who else He loves?  Every other person you’ve ever met, ever will meet, and never will meet. Care about someone, someone you normally wouldn’t think twice about. Even if you are not Christian, this still applies.

         What right do we, full of faults as we all are, have to dismiss any person?

         Class of 2008, we must have compassion on top of ‘Respect, Responsibility, Tolerance,’ and we must decide to have it now.

         Thank you, USJ.