ladies and gentleman good afternoon my name is dan richardson on the principal of belmont high school on behalf of the administration faculty and students of belmont high school i'd like to welcome you to our commencement exercises the class of two thousand thirteen as we begin our program i would like to introduce our honored guest behind me are members of the school committing first to dr kingston superintendent lori grammer chairperson mr we have come here today to acknowledge that all young men and women assembled before us have mastered the skills and knowledge that the community has determined to be necessary for success in the future the bellman high school diploma which they will recei today is a symbol of the mastery while the diploma or they received today only bears the signatures of school committee chair the superintendent of schools and the high school principal there are scores of individuals in our school system who made it possible for these young people to complete their thirteen years of education i need to take that opportunity to recognize the tireless efforts of the faculty and staff of the entire belmont public schools and guiding our students to meet the standards for graduation today we have a group about back up to here to help preside over the ceremony i would like to personally thank you for your dedication in preparing these students for this moment thank you within the group we have two individuals who are retiring this year today they have seventy years of service to the belmont public schools please give a round of applause to miss carolyn bunyan and miss martha regan to the class of two thousand and thirteen i would like to share with you a quote from a hero of mine victor hugo victor hugo was a french poet playwright novelist visual artist statesman and human rights activist mr hugo is known for many quotes but there is one that has always resonated with me and i hope with you he was once quoted saying there is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world and this is an idea whose time has come well like the idea whose time has come your time has come to enter the world and to establish your mark and doing so be proud of your accomplishments strive to be the best you can be  whatever endeavor you choose but most of all be kind to one another congratulations to the class of two thousand and thirteen your time has come it is now my pleasure to introduce to you mr danny dignan the president of the class of two thousand and thirteen you can be seated at this time thank you mr richards and thank you as well to all the faculty and school committee members that have gathered today for our graduation parents welcome you all to the high school as you partake in our celebration since freshman year have coached a youth basketball team with a couple friends this past march on a particularly cold and bleak saturday morning in the china gym our team bowed out in the semi final round of the playoffs needless to say i was heartbroken considering that my eighth grade travel team nickname was moral support it made more sense from a basketball career to be pursued outside of the playing realm as the final buzzer sounded and hands were shook i was a bit dazed i felt immediately the impact of knowing that i was never to coach a youth basketball game again that was it all the early mornings and frustration and enthusiasm i put into coaching that was over and i'll be honest when i got home from the game around ten i just sat in my room for a while really sad never again will i be able to walk into this field house and claim a hoop for team practice never again will i be able to scream and bang the floor with a clipboard without looking as i was made panic attack that ended when the clock read zero there was no more time left for coaching for the emotional rush for the bonds with my players it simply ended i say this because belmont high is ending for us in fact it ends tomorrow as soon as we leave the all night party after that we will never again be together as a class my biggest regret from high school is not getting to know all of you and i'm sure that many of you can see the very same words and mean the exact same thing i am saying right now but nevertheless our experiences with each other have shaped us and given us memories that we were a member for years to come memories like youth basketball memories like staying up until one in the morning finishing up up a bio lab report or tossing a football around at one broke after school on friday is like being backstage for a pop concert or singing greased down the hallway as those moments and images are of tremendous value to all of us it will be a strange feeling next fall walking to class and not seeing your faces around the hallways it will be odd finding my course schedule and upon entering each class not recognizing a single face and quite frankly i am scared of that moment when familiarity with others holds no bearing over my behavior or action when we leave this town and the school and realize that there was so much we have yet to see or do but although belmont high may and our friendships and our memories will not i'm in extremely linked for the rest of my life to belmont high and especially to the people who i have grown up and now i'm graduating with from the first time i put on my t ball cap to standing before you now wearing this hat with tassels i've mature and with you and i've undergone these formative years with you for that i thank you and mentally parents you are here today watching your sons and daughters conclude not only their high school experience but for many of us our time living under your roo this marks the beginnings of our adulthood and i'm sure this is a momentous if not frightening occasion for all parents here rest assured though i am confident that this class is capable of handling the challenges being an adult presents to us and while those challenges will be met individually at various times we proceed out together as the belmont high class of two thousand and thirteen it's been a blast guys thanks for everything thank you principal richards i am pleased to present the first of two the school committee awards for outstanding achievement in scholarship this award is presented to the senior who is an outstanding student who believes that computer programming is lego for adults he has infinite unsatisfied curiosity and general love of knowledge he has self taught himself a variety of computer programming languages he has attended the john hopkins center for talented jews and he took many writing courses as well as earning eighty s in two classes in computer science at the harvard extension school he had a summer internship as a programmer at harvard law as berkman center where responsibilities included designing and deploying web applications he's an ultimate frisbee fan and club sport competitor i'm also pleased to say that he has been a reliable and responsible student representative to the belmont school committee he will be attending harvard college in the fall this young gentleman is and mr richards september second two thousand and nine the first day we entered the school as its students i remember that first day i remember we had all arrived a little bit early and were clustered in the front lobby reading the friends we would be spending the next four years with i remember filing into an auditorium for an assembly welcoming all of us to the high school i remember trying to escape that auditorium as fast as possible to get to the cafeteria where upperclassmen pizza awa it's amazing to remember that almost four years ago we were walking into the cafeteria for the very first time we sat down at our assigned tables we'd been assigned tables during the assembly but to tell the truth i don't remember how and we had a conversation with the seniors and for me that conversation was very important they taught me everything from tricks to remember the ridiculous start times for them odds to how to approach homework i remember this because i realized later i had sat down at the wrong table and i had had that initial conversation with people i wasn't intended to have it with the irony is that that conversation played such a big part in my at the un attitude towards the high school and that it wasn't supposed to happen it's important to realize how much our mistakes shape us even mistakes like failing a test i still remember that first a p us history test you know the one for the summer reading i had heard from upper class and the test was horrible and i had read the chapter so many times i had taken probably as many pages of notes as they were reading and even color coded them and none of that mattered when i got to the test and saw the first question something about the maryland toleration act yeah i failed test but what's funny what's really funny is that that failure sort of taught me how to survive the following tests so whether they be mistakes as trivial as misreading the number of your sign table on the first day mistakes like failing a or mistakes as severe as the kind would rather not talk about what we still don't have or diplomas our mistakes have somehow set up a series of events that led us here they have led us to learn showed us things we made up seen and shaped us and for that reason we should embrace and celebrate every mistake misstep and failure because they made us who we are and who you are is amazing you are diverse individuals with interest ranging from rugby to the performing arts your outstanding friends who i know i can count on and you are amazing classmates and i'm proud to say that i have spent my past four years here with you and as of today who you are is the belmont high school i would like to us dr kingston to return to the podium for the second school committee  the second school committee award for outstanding achievement in scholarship is presented to a senior who is a young woman who has been able to finesse the trick of balancing and intends academic schedule along with a ridge extra curricular life she has a knack for languages she is fluent in chinese taiwanese japanese and english she was interested in learning french at belmont high school because it was different from the asian languages she already knew she served as an english chinese translator at a hospital in taiwan she has studied under a must to go music camp in canada she is an outstanding musician a wonderful strangler she has been an active member of the tennis team and she will be attending harvard college in the fall please welcome the recipient of this ward and  you mr richards and dr kingston i would like to begin by congratulating the class of two thousand and thirteen on our impending graduation while this may feel like an end to some of us it is a transition to a new beginning full of opportunity now that we have to close this chapter of our lives we are bound to ask what's next when we were young children we were  what do you want to be when you grow up many of us responded when dr astronaut president or our favorite superhero now i ask you again to contemplate who will you be when you grow up who will you be when you become an integral member of a new community college career or family tomorrow will be our first step into the future and we may not be the same people york today the future is full of possibilities to reinvent ourselves regardless of who we have been in the past earlier this year in fact a mere three months ago i was standing under the bright lights of our auditorium with my violin in hand honored with the opportunity to perform a solo can tr pausing slightly before the opening notes i scan the audience for reassurance from familiar faces my violin teacher family friends all instrumental in constructing my identity as a musician i recall three months of weekly lessons shaping this piece to perform it correctly when a thought struck me have i been playing my music or someone else's music although i am forever grateful to my teachers for our friendship and instruction i am also aware that we are constantly shaped and reinforced by family peers and society to become who we are on life stage soon we may not have guidance from nearby family and close friends every step of the way however we will now embrace the new opportunities to reinvent our own style henry david thoreau once wrote if a man loses pace with its companions perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer let him step to the music which he hears however measured or far away and i trust that we will step to the beat of our own drummers in the future regardless of the beat we have followed in the past no matter what path we take from this day on my only suggestion is to take the path that brings the most happiness we will not remember the grades we earned on our report cards or the awards won for achievement in five or ten years however thank you for sharing this moment with me and once again congratulations to the bum on high school class of twenty thirteen thank you for both of our speakers as always outstanding we have a musical performance for you so it goes i'd like to call those votes up to the stage at this time and then the d and also old enough to know that was bridge over troubled waters not really joel and that simon and garfunkel beautifully done things ms graham members of the school committee i hereby certify that the students assembled here today have completed the requirements to earn a belmont high school diploma at this time and like to ask belmont school committee chair ms laurie graham and belmont school committee secretary to come to the podium to present the diploma at this time the class president should come up to the podium and introduce our graduates charlotte alexander madison divine daniel donahue benjamin good alex one benjamin john a lot of guys laura levon william long daniel martin john mcnamara georgia morgan jay malan ryan gilman jacqueline william lindsay young i would like to thank everyone for coming to share this celebration with us i would also like to thank miss margaret and mr sean landers and their students for today's musical selection performance thank you to the head custodian j principal who coordinates the events special thank you to our main office secretaries miss carolyn bunya and cindy domino judy glover for their incredible work in organizing the events just not today but for the past few weeks the three of them have been absolutely amazing thank you on behalf of the faculty and staff of belmont high school i can say that it was an honor and a pleasure to work with you congratulations and good luck your time has c congratulations