ninety ninety five i would like to start by welcoming all the family and friends who have come out to support our new inductees welcome to principal richards superintendent fail and assistant superintendent de i heard all of you to  a perfect sense the students in the national honor society are not inducted because they have great grades they're inducted because they know how to balance studying with all of the other activities in their lives their well rounded every single person i sitting in front of me tonight does not simply do well in school they exhibit good character and are well respected by their teachers and hears they volunteer their time performing countless community service activities for the american cancer society rosie's place and the belmont  pantry they're involved in band orchestra magical ski team soccer football and many other activities and this is important because it's leadership and involvement outside the classroom that students will be remembered for i personally have been taught to save you money parents the first four so years of high school were pretty stressful for me when i was sitting in my room worrying about the next eight or euro test or and unfortunately this one still haunts me my next in our classes or how well we did on every assignment it will be the people in the moments outside of the class it will be getting measured on the road to clinch our first of all in two years it will be playing on stage at symphony hall during the all state festival as our library basically doing anything except work in the library and of course it will be watching absolutely madam auction in what was the most i think game of musical chairs the world has ever service our officers service and the region have a day's work many opportunities arise to help others willingness to work for the benefit of those in need that monetary compensation or recognition is a respect of others it is this force of character which guides one through life and once it is developed grows out of the characters achieved and not received it is a product of constant action and daily striving to make the right choice the problem of character is the problem self control we must be in reality what we wish to appear to others by demonstrating such qualities as respect responsibility trustworthiness fairness caring and citizenship leadership leadership should exert a wholesome influence on the school in the community in taking on initiative in classes and school activities the real leader strives to train and aid of those who wish to  project sometimes the price of leadership is sacrifice the willingness to yield one's own personal interests for the interest of others a leader has self confidence and will go forward when others may has it no matter what power and resources make josephine cooper alexander caribbean margaret sha a silver lining doomed to repeat it therefore i believe it is essential for us to look back and learn from where we have come from to acknowledge where we are in order to look to where we will be going three stories i'm going to share tonight  big part about where i've come from most importantly though each story has shaped who i am in one way or another they have all taught me valuable lessons license i hope will be relatable and beneficial to all of you as well my first story comes from my years a student teacher at brookline high school i was interning for my own freshman high school history of the proper grammar something that was incredibly cool for me and i'm sure something that was slightly horrifying for him for the first half of the year i watched i study i took notes and i waited one second semester came robert gave me two classes including  c p u s history class that met at the end of the day while i was determined to completely wowed those students the third day i talked it was going to be a task that i worked so unbelievably hard on that test a pause and i concluded if these kids can get through this task in less than fifteen minutes then they've earned a little extra freedom yes if you finish early you can go eight minutes later i was the only person left in the room i ate minutes i had drastically underestimated their their desire to demonstrate knowledge versus forty two minutes my motives were genuine and i was very happy to reward students who had worked hard for me sadly what i felt was important was not mutually shared some time or third two thousand it this was my first day as a full time teacher i come from a line that features and i don't mean i don't need to share slush for all of you with the details that led me into deciding to go into this profession but let's just say that september third two my high school and i was completely on my own no robert grant no advisors from tops that went down in flames there would be no one there to extinguish them but i was afraid i got to school around six forty five on that first day and i began to set up my classroom that's when the real nerves started kicking in with the kids like me when they respond to me when they even listen to me or with a right order the flies style i began to perspire around to be honest i do not remember a thing about that first class other than the fact that my undershirt little to protect my pressure from looking like i was currently in the twentieth mile of america as in my students like me would remember very little about that class of course was mistaken two years later i was coaching with a cross and i was talking with some graduating seniors about my time here and i asked one of the juniors at the time was fortunate enough to be there for that first historical first day i was just called so sorry for you you were really nervous why it was such a disaster that a freshman on their first day of high school where the social pressures academic pressures school pressures to worry about took a step back and said wow that dude is struggling i got over that day i persevered i'm proud to stand here before you and say that now i only sweat when i'm hot are sitting before before us right here because of your capability your determination your drop so be assured that you have what it takes trust yourself as you have excelled at a very competitive high school during a very challenging time of your ops adolescence and you have done so brilliantly trust that you will be able to be successful and be able to accomplish any tasks and in front of you i would like to conclude with a story about something that is near and dear to probably everyone in this room the college application process being i have jewish son the president had priest from brooklyn massachusetts naturally i only applied to catholic and southern university thought really cool no seriously that is why i started looking at the university of virginia then i learned about it and i felt i visited with my mom and it was a friday afternoon the sun was out  seventy degrees was the most gorgeous campus i'd ever seen i fell in love with the architecture the layout the scenery i truly felt it was the perfect campus and perfect school for me my mother was with me during the whole application process and did her best to steer me along the way as what did i really know about the rest of my life after all i was only eighteen years old and my number one choice was because of a hat i didn't get it was probably from the basque although i was just wasn't for me the more i read about it and learned about them the more i wanted to go to intervene or building fell in nov knowing that i would probably not get into vanderbilt my focus my desire more towards villanova so when i got the phone call from villanova that i got in and i i was quite peeved with them and never heard back from them so i said some disparaging comments about them and how they never let me know if i'd add or hadn't been taken off their wait list at that point my mother said yes  to go there anyway you were still excited about dillard opus over yet because i hadn't gotten into vanderbilt or the university of virginia i was very excited about villanova anybody who spends ten minutes talking to me about colleges will know how much i love you know when i got there i hit the ground running joining clubs going on mission trips attending craft with mask my religious background i had to see what it was all about and the whole time working really hard in the classroom as  and athletics was fine because i would have been the same straight no matter where i was joining everything working hard and making the very best of my college experience when all of you first  and where will you go well that's up to you but i know what you will be bringing with hard work determination of the thirst for knowledge a desire to improve yourselves in your schools and understanding what really matters in this world you international on sidon a group of high standards and she and not only in the area of academics on community service but in character and leadership and the way in which we present ourselves to the but that begs the question what defines what is right and what is wrong how does one determine within the complexity of our world today the small sometimes my new elements of an action that fine it is great or is wrong we're presented with a difficult situation we receive plenty advice about how to me these decisions parents and teachers friends and mentors that instinct that intuition that helps me critical decisions in the blink of an eye or helps makes the choice between action and action that is something that was coming from within whether you believe years for an event you weren't previously informed and which you probably didn't even know existed sometimes it will mean meeting and choice choosing to set of the things aside and be that individual who shows up be that individual who goes the extra lengths to ensure that all the help that is the in is received but truth be told it's huge years we're going to work out to you more than anyone else and they will look to you for guidance and for help and you will choose how you're going to give it to them this evening i passed the torch to a new generation of members  national arts society all you hear are leaders whether you are leaders because of your academic achievement leaders in sports or the laws you represent a part of mine a high school that we as a in are most proud you represent that difference between right and wrong that choice between action and in action we trust that each and every one of you since the one nine hundred sixty three sixty four here the book is almost complete we have one or two more pages but if any of you know of family members and uncles and cousins who were in the national honor society who has pas us please feel free to come up right after the ceremony and take a peek for an old signature congratulations again to all our new inductees thank you to morrow and to be a just chamber orchestra s