superintendent of schools dr peter school committee member miss was with gibson school committee member missy and rittenberg school committee member mr scott stratford about nine months ago on the first day of school in september i mean we met with this very group of students in this room remember that seems like just yesterday we talked about the leadership role that a senior class needs to play making a school successful we also discussed how the actions of the students of belmont high school were a reflection of the entire community now here in june i can say that the actions of these students in the last mine months have surpassed our greatest last friday at our annual awards assembly we celebrated the many accomplishments of this very town to a group of young people in the group of students we have to assemble to are today we have nationally recognized scholars and artists gifted musicians and world class athletes most importantly in my opinion we also have a group of young people who are dedicated to serving their community and just when i thought my impressions of this group couldn't get any higher they came together to produce a senior class play that we talked about years to come africa you show yourself to be a remarkable group of young people that the future high school classes will just attempt to emulate you've made your families your teachers in the entire community of them are proud of you and also like to the ceremony today calls for just four students speakers i know that while i represent this class and title i could never aspired to stand for the immense variety of ability virtues strength and intelligence seated before me today as i stand here and speak my own thoughts that talent diversity and personality sits in silence and while today we don't have the time to honor every individual moment that the class of two thousand and seven did something exceptional i at least was lucky enough to spend the last eight years of my life with them i witnessed first hand the achievements of these students and i know personally the dedication t them as a class i saw it through i saw through the events they organize the service they did the games they won and the traditions they both continued and started over four years a few hundred of you have done over a thousand acts worthy of note and what i really liked about my time here what i plan to remember for the rest of my life are handful of those thousand of acts whatever i can remember like when i got to go see by  idol or a battle of the bands and see some of you perform the musical you just pulled off so spectacularly last week the powder puff game in the fall watching magical is walk around in the winter and i sincerely hope that you will be able to leave here with as many memories as i and you'll be able to hold on to them with as much love as i do i know that i'm taking my into connecticut next year and i hope that they'll follow me around for a long time i'll leave you however to run menace at your own pace because we all ran through these halls in different directions and while there was overlap and points of connection at some places we all remember and cherish different things what i really wanted to say before you scatter yourselves all over the country and later all over the world has a little less to do the past and more to do with tomorrow and whatever comes after that today there may have only been time to hear from for students but you all have the right to a stage and you all have the right to stand up and speak and i know that all of you have advice to give and stories to tell and ideas to flesh out and all of it is worth hearing i hope that when you leave here on to college or work you'll find yourself in front of the audience there are enough microphones and podiums and stages in this world to give you all the chance anough performances and shows projects boardrooms companies games for you to go and shape the world around you as you did here at b h us and make it more interesting and engaging for the people around you as you did for me so please when you leave here don't forget to grab every chance you get to stand up and get on stage and be heard from what you've shown me in these last few years i'm confident that the world could only be bettered by what you have to give so well done class of zero seven thank you for letting me grow with you and work with you and represent you try not to forget these last four years and  probably facebook you in the fall thank you mike graduates of the class of two thousand and seven parents and grandparents friends and relatives members of the faculty members of the school committee and other special guest i'm pleased to present a school committee award for outstanding achievement and exceptional distinction in scholarship this year we have the unique situation of having a tie for salutatorian with two students having identical grade point averages to one one hundredth of a point the first of these awards is presented to the senior who is the salutatorian of the class of two thousand and seven recipient of a national merit scholarship recipient of the million blacker award for writing and the national council of teachers of english achievement award a musically talented student who plays the trumpet piano guitar and has been a member of the wind on some for four years he has also participated in the jazz band in pit orchestra during high school he is outside of school been participating in the greater boston you symphony orchestra he received the president's award for community service during his junior year he is an avid and active outdoorsman having participated in a three hundred fifty mile bike trip through new york and vermont performing trail work also perform team leadership service in camp counseling to children in south dakota on a native american reservation he would ten finalist a member of diversity and tolerance and a member of amnesty international and the great straight alliance youth alliance worker at her church highly involved in community service member of the national honor society college in the fall the recipient of this  hi good afternoon dr holland dr all the members of the school committee mr harvey so i'm really showing faculty family friends and the class of two thousand and seven so i'd like to start by telling you it sort of stupid little story so a few years ago during my freshman year i was sitting in band one morning and our conductor mr malley brought out a piece of music for sight read so we read through it once and then he stopped us and he asked so who likes this piece and i would say about a third of the class raised their hand and then he said who doesn't like it and another third of the class raised their hand and then he said and who doesn't like it or dislike it so now at this point i hadn't raised my hand yet and the seemed like a pretty good third option you know it's very non committal right up my alley and you know furthermore there was another third of the class two hundred standards so i figured even if it wasn't the best choice i would have some company so i raised my hand but then i looked around me and i noticed i didn't really have the support that i was banking on in fact i was the only one raising my hand but i freaked out a little bit then i figured i could work past it with the strength of my convictions after all i had no opinion about this piece of music and i was proud of it so when mr malley asked me to explain myself i said something stupid like i don't really care either way to which he immediately responded get out so at this point i was a little confused but the message was pretty clear i done something to offend him and my presence was no longer appreciated so i stepped out of the door and began roaming the halls aimlessly trying to figure out exactly what it was that had happened and what i had done wrong first of all i came to the conclusion that mr mellie was a real jerk i decided that the entire situation the sight reading the questions had al elaborate plot a trap and i was sure that he derived some personal satisfaction from playing these mind games with me but then to my shock and dismay i realized that i actually think he had a point to make what i admitted in that moment when i said i don't care was that i was completely detached from what it was that i was doing that sounds innocent enough we all sometimes do things robotically cruise through life without thinking but that's not really what life is about if you've ever been to a really good concert you know what i'm talking about because a truly great musician does nothing incidentally every note every rhythm that you hear him or her play seems like the greatest the most natural thing in the world and what this really comes down to is that great musicians find a way to make their instruments extensions of their selves so much so that when you hear them play it's like listening to them talk or laugh or cry and i don't know about you but i find this completely on firing and incredibly appealing on some fundamental level and of course it's not just about music i get the same feeling when i see an amazing athlete play have a great conversation with another person or even just step outside and walk around there are so many things in the world to get excited about so much we haven't seen or experienced so many ideas we have never even thought about it can be overwhelming to live in a world built on this grand scale and personally i know i often feel like i will only ever be able to scratch the surface of all that the universe has to offer and to be honest this is probably the truth but frustrating  that may be i really don't think it's a bad thing because for all that i want to know more to experience more i never really want to have it all as my thesis author field or dostoyevsky road man like a chess player loves the process of the game not the end of it and this i think is what the whole mr malley thing boils down to if we are really more concerned with the process of each evening than with the achievements of themselves than apathy not caring is the worst thing we can possibly do to put it differently if the meaning of life is not in the destination but in the trip itself then it's probably best to stop and look at the view sometimes and this i think is what makes graduation an important time for us our lives will undoubtedly take different courses will become doctors lawyers starving artists get married stay single study work travel but though our destinations may vary we can all take joy in the trip life from what i can tell after only seventeen years is pretty sweet and we've got a lot more of it to go but it's pretty much up to us to make good use of the time so i'll leave you with the wise words of charles wright and the watts one hundred third street rittenband it's not what you like when you're doing what you're doing it's what you're doing when you're doing what you like you're doing express yourself do it oh thanks as a tough act to follow can hear dr holland dr arden members of the school committee mr harvey faculty family friends and the class of two thousand and seven good afternoon when i was seven years old i had my heart set on being a dolphin trainer i spent hours finding and reading books about dolphins and piles of dolphin related toys i even learned a few hand signals used to train dolphins however as many of you probably know my future plans no longer involve dolphins or any other marine animal for that matter i initially thought i knew exactly what i wanted to do with my life each passing year brought new hopes and goals and i drifted from my original dream similarly as a freshman entering this high school i had a pretty clear idea of exactly what my high school experience would be i plan to neatly fallen from starting point a to destination b and i did not allow any room for obstacles or diversions along the way however over these past years a mixture of unexpected events and my own shifting interests has changed my straight line path into a swerving sweeping journey and i'm sure that many of you sitting here can relate to this most if not all of us have changed a lot over our years at belmont high and our past expectations probably do not match up with our current lives although i did not accomplish everything i originally set out to do i know that personally i would never trade my actual high school experience for the one i imagined four years ago as we grow older our world broadens and we come across choices  opportunities that we never knew existed as a freshman i could not possibly have anticipated how many different things would be open to me at this high school i know that many of us have found an activity whether it be a sport art theater or music has become an integral part of our lives despite the fact we never really planned on being involved at all personally i barely knew about the many clubs us and i only joined one during my first year here now as a graduating senior i'm involved in more clubs than there are days of the week i purchased spitting in these clubs i went to everything from brazilian food to nuclear decay as well as important lessons in leadership teamwork and compromise in undertaking these new interests and sharing from our original past we also learned more about ourselves it is easy to put on cruise control and just coast through life when everything is going on it's expected route however it is when we take those first few steps off our path and out of our comfort zone that we are forced to question who we are and what we want to pursue and in choosing a new direction we learn a little more about our personal potential and the individuals that we are act alan although once said you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition what you'll discover will be wonderful will discover is yourself by leaving my expected route i also met people i would not otherwise have gotten to know them or have learned about and interact with the members of this class the more impressed i have been by your kindness and your openness your wonderful thoughtful people who all the capacity to make a positive impact in this world so in short i have learned that is not only acceptable for a past expectations to be different from our current lives but that it is necessary to change direction in life as we are constantly changing ourselves in fact it is usually in one of the curves of our life past that we come across our most enlightening and reaching and memorable experiences the unexpected journeys we have taken thus far will probably pale in comparison to those in store for us and truthfully i have no idea where i will be in five years maybe i'll be swimming with dolphins who knows i do hope though that i will use what i have learned here at belmont high to alter my path when it is necessary so it can lead to a whole variety of experiences that i never before even considered i leave you with the words  the school committee award for outstanding achievement an exceptional distinction and scholarship is presented to the senior who is valedictorian of the class of two thousand and seven the recipient of a national merit scholarship a member of the national honor recipient of a president's award for community service during her junior and senior years she has played the violin for thirteen years on the piano for nine years and has been a member of the school orchestra throughout high school and has participated in the greater boston  dr holland dr members of the school committee mr harvey faculty family friends and the class of two thousand and seven last tuesday i returned to my kindergarten classroom i watched as the children sat on the floor and listened to a story about knights in the middle ages and i watched as they walked quietly through the school halls and as the designated line leader ta and door holders perform their jobs and turned kindergarten was a transition for all of us today as we complete our education in the belmont public schools we experience another transition another time of endings and beginnings as a class we are a dynamic group offering diverse experiences to each other we have ideas about friends sports classes music and family and these ideas continue to change we have share the experiences of our lives in different ways we have shared our views formally in class discussions and informally over lunch we have shared serious literary analyses complete with m l a documentation in our papers and we have shared amusing anecdotes over the phone we have shared laughter and tears and often both at once whatever the circumstances of our communications we have had the benefit of meeting every school day for the last thirteen years we learned to read to write and to count the desks got bigger and we traded crayons for graphing calculators but more importantly we have learned together as we set off on different paths and we may but don't have to know the directions of these paths our communications are of vital importance we will meet new people whom we will see on a daily basis just as we have seen each other daily for the last thirteen years we will inevitably share our experiences and ideas with those people however in a world so large we should not limit ourselves to interacting only with the people whom we happen to encounter let us not leave everything to chance call email facebook maybe even write to your old friends but also contact those whose work or ideas interest or confuse you particularly because your paths might not otherwise cross reaching out both to our old friends and also making unlikely new connections is valuable to our learning and our lives not everyone will be close friends but connections with colleagues and acquaintances present equal opportunity for progress through cooperation why do we share our experiences interests ideas and questions we learned to share in kindergarden so that everyone could have a turn on the swing and now we must share because we live in an interconnected world of limited size and resources we share because our diverse experiences and ideas can make the worlds interdependence productive and positive as a class of almost three hundred we represent many different nationalities and cultures as these nations and cultures interact on the world stage we all have voices to offer our voices that have the power to meld idealism and realists how should we share there are infinite possibilities personally i share through music making music together her saying we speak to one another at a very fundamental level we can share in many venues in sports science business and politics to name a few whatever academic and professional powerhouse we find we are part of the network of the world along these pass we can reach out in ways large and small our teachers and classmates in the belmont public schools have guided us in beginning to cut the path let us continue let us remember how we learned to share and communicate in kindergarten and let us do the same as adults congratulations to the class of two thousand and seven you academic achievement award in english is awarded to rebecca the school community award for english is a the school community award foreign language goes to michael strapped for in theater the academic achievement award goes to april pot i now like to ask dr holland to come to the podium for some remarks and to begin with the presentation of the promise thank you mike you in the class of two thousand and seven ar extraordinary group of young men and women who have raised the bar for future classes in belmont in the area of academics performance in the arts effort exchange community service here s eighty and advanced placement scores exceeded those of earlier classes and represent the highest aspirations of other communities the ten national merit finalist this year is the highest number ever for belmont high school your individual and team effort it performances have thrilled the community and have been a source of pride for the town none of us can forget the wonderful event in the garden this year in the basketball tournament your performance in coral our castro and jazz music festivals have brought state and national distinction to belmont in the visual arts and here at are you have excelled and brought enjoyment to our community and despite cram schedules very full days and nights and weekends many of you devoted more than one hundred hours of community service and received the prestige us presidents award as a class you have ach club as a class you have achieved a very high levels and shown that you are men and women for others my wish for you is that you continue this commitment throughout your life your parents and your grandparents your teachers know that our society and indeed our world desperately need the level of intelligence and effort and energy and service which you can provide i say to you thank you and keep up the good work and now to school committee chair mr john breaux i am pleased to certify that the students here present have met the requirements for graduation for belmont high school the six of us on the school committee in the fifteen or so of us who have served on your school committee since you were in kindergarten i offer you the class of two thousand and seven our most sincere congratulations and best wishes let's share one thought with you that you may not have considered think back to when you first entered school you depended on everyone your parents your older siblings your kindergarten teacher as you got older you gain independence and started to contribute as much as you received instead of only telling you what to do your parents and teachers came to listen to your opinions even ask your advice it's true that you'll still need your parents for such minor things as col but consider this you are reaching a point where we depend on you as much as you depend on us we will hire you to get the work done collaborating with you we will be your neighbors we will vote for you we will be your friends you are our partners in this world i think the public schools of help prepare you well for all this and we look forward to the next steps are a long partnership again congratulations thad also like to recognize morgan's retirement from teaching at the end of this school year