morning good morning on behalf of the faculty staff administration and board of school directors it is my pleasure to welcome you to the forty eighth graduation exercises  before we get started i have a few thoughts i'd like to share with the class of two thousand and fifteen i'm going to start with some definitions while the following words are not part of the m m u four hundred they are words that i think describe you and what you did for m m u this year the first is tone and the definition i'm using this morning is an atmosphere of respectability or class the class of two thousand and fifteen a proper tone for m m u this year the next word is fellowship once again the definition i'm using is friendly association especially with people who share one's interest now that first sentence for tone i made up this one i found in the dictionary where i found this definition and i think it's very appropriate they value fun and good fellowship as the cement of the commute of their community now a quick aside to the friends and guest of the graduates the attitude the mood of a high school is set by the senior class the class of two thousand and fifteen set a tone of good fellowship that spread beyond them into the rest of the school community and for that i say thank you now i know some of you are wondering so what we help the school have a good year here's the so what as you m you to move on to other places learn the lesson of community from yourself community matters it makes the places we live learn in work better i challenge you to be effective in gage members of your new communities where ever they may be thanks for everything you've done these four years everything you've given us you've made mt mansfield high school a better place and for that i think you mr weston teachers parents my fellow classmates i've been imagining my our high school reunion since i was in middle school i've always been curious about the different directions our lives would take us in and how we would all end up i used to imagine nurses doctors politicians lawyers teachers and actors i saw some working in cubicles under the first lights of an office and others skiing every day especially when there is fresh powder even now i still like t picture us all coming back together twenty years after graduation from every corner of the world just to reminisce and share funny stories in twenty years the school may be run completely by computers and some of us may look very different but i am sure too that some things ladies will still be giving out the occasional free cookie and twenty years down the road we will look back on these past four years and or number all the good times the bad times and the times in between like how we fought over silly things like teacher designs  to come together and when winter carnival as a class well member how we had so many great ideas for so many senior pranks and we laugh about how many never manage to implement most of them looking back on our high school selves i like to think we will  ambitious we are now we are a class of dreamers we are always planning something new always bickering about the details we are constantly anticipating the moment of success in middle school the idea of starting careers and heading in different directions and being successful was still intangible still far off enough that it was easy to point out people's lives for them easy to peg him as a teacher her the politician him as a doctor now those are knocking on our front doors now those predictions are closer tha ever now i can more clearly imagine this is performers teachers dancers scientists writers fashion designers nurses and so many other things we are heading out on our different paths now and suddenly those imagining seem incredibly tangible and maybe even a little bit scary suddenly the moment of success is starting but success is a funny thing it seems like recently whenever the word success comes up in the news it is accompanied by a story about a new astounding technological advancement a new groundbreaking discovery in scientific research or a new and fancy invention successful people are confident wealthy beautiful and inspiring their generosity kindness and ability to change the world seem larger than life but success is a broad word it doesn't have to mean curing cancer or inventing the i phone what it means to one person could be entirely different from what it means to another look around at the people sitting next to you success for him because simply mean skiing on twenty consecutive days success for her could mean trying new foods everywhere she travels success for others could be reaching the top in academia or politics or bringing education to needy children my point is success is different for everyone it's so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the media and the way they portray success but success is not a single platform every person has to reach it's not a pedestal placed in the universe of position rather it's a jumble of different stepping stones every person walk across the stepping stones in a different order but all that matter is that they get to the stepping stone they want to if you have new a success means it means being happy it means figuring out what you need and getting it it means not feeling guilty that you're not becoming a doctor the way your parents seemed about not being ashamed that you're not a star athlete and not hearing anyone else's expectations besides your own i hope you are all able to step outside the doors of this gymnasium today and start living your own success i hope you are able to keep dreaming the way our classes dream for four years and i hope that you are able to implement all of your ideas so that when you return for a twenty year union when we see each other for the first time in years we can not only reminisce but also look ahead we will not only to share our successes with each other but also to anticipate many more to come that is what i hope for myself and for all of you my fellow classmates so i will finish by saying think you i thank you for letting me stand up on the stage and speak to you this morning thank you to all of you teachers and classmates for teaching me so much about learning and friendship and laude please come forward to make the second address my fellow members of the class of two thousand and fifteen almost there even though we haven't officially graduated yet it seems like most of us have already moved on past high school we've been rolled in college courses started training for the armed forces applied for jobs and opportunities for the coming year the air is charged with energy ready to spark the moment we all finally get our diplomas we will be adults we will be independent responsible mature some more than others are you excited to graduate i'm excited too but i'm also scared and i'm sure many of you are too freedom from high school and our parents homes carries a high price taxes jobs insurance collaboration with people we haven't known for four or eight or twelve or even eighteen years we're going to meet people smarter stronger more talented and less kind than we vermonters in the great big world it's not going to be like anything we've ever known i can't tell you what the future will hold i can however tell you how to face it the first i'm interested in what you guys think the opposite of fear is shadow an answer come on people courage bravery you read my speech didn't you yes the opposite of fear is love i think our culture has created all these misconceptions around the idea of love for example love is not a romantic feeling w love can generate feelings of passion and connection love is foremost a verb it's an action an attitude a lifestyle more importantly the of is a choice to treat other people kindly a choice we all must make each and every day but i'm afraid that crucial category of other people doesn't just include your friends your family and your significant others anyone can love those who love them you need to love everyone and by everyone i mean that obnoxious kid i won't say any names you know who you are the one who annoys you with his or her wisecracks i mean the teacher who gives you hard work or pop quizzes every class i mean your boss who asks you to work overtime when you're exhausted i mean your ex girlfriend or ex boyfriend i especially mean those who have hurt you deeply when others have been hurtful or unfair towards us our impulse is to reciprocate their own kindness because we believe unleashing our hurt will somehow repair our brokenness but instead it adds a deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars hey cannot try about hate martin luther king jr said only love can do that real love is compassionate even when others don't deserve it even if we get nothing in return and people are the least lovable when they need love the most look at the people sitting around you did you know that they are fighting a battle you know nothing about we all desperately need love and yet we withhold it from each other constantly if you're looking for a perfect person to love good luck they don't exist but as one of my favorite speakers t d jakes said if you succeed at loving imperfect people then it becomes possible that someone could love imperfect you choose to love even when it's hard because the harder love is to give away the more compassionate and the more complete we become we're all here because of great kindness we're here because our parents and guardians loved us enough to help us with our school work to drive us to practice to pay for our supplies and trust me we didn't always deserve it we're here because of the teachers and mentors who took time out of their busy lives to help us sharpen our skills they didn't do it for themselves they did it to help us get here as you leave m m u i can't promise that love will make all your dreams come true or that will give you a guaranteed successful life but what it will give you is fulfilled life like the great philosophers and musicians the beatles said love is all you need thank you thank you sydney the honored speaker chosen by the seniors to deliver the charge to the class of two thousand and fifteen is mr bryan open social studies teacher you know the challenge of this is just how not to make this speech sort of cheesy or campy or you know sort of redundant of what you've heard before and that's it's a huge burden burden it's like a daunting task you know to kind of make this real because you know you deserve it right so as i prepare for the speech i started thinking about like what should i not say like what thing should i not be talking about you know those phrases like i don't know you learned everything in  kindergarten you know it's not the end it's the beginning you know that kind of thing or now you're out of the real world and it was that real world thing that made me laugh a little bit because was that you know what the real world is kind of this mythical place that you moving on to that so vastly different than what you just come from and you know it's not actually the more i thought about this it's not much different than high school you know there's a whole series of seemingly pointless tasks with arbitrary rewards that all seem to relate and they kind of just take you away from other people in the things that you really love you know it's kind of the same and but it's as low as it gets i think so what i really think that  i want to address with you guys is that what we still do is we still love it but we still love this real world we still love high school you look fondly back on it because there's those moments like those surprising moments things that are out of the ordinary the uncommon that sort of comes through all the monday you know what i mean and sometimes they're terrifying sometimes they're beautiful sometimes are disgusting sometimes they're joyous but these moments come and those are the things that get you those are the things that you look back on you don't look back on the boring classes you don't look back on the boring moments all the work you had to do you look back on those moments and so that i think is the real world also surprising moments that is what you should remember because i think that's what makes it real that's what makes us human and i think if you pay attention to these things that's going to be like a really good thing i just love the world does it make sense doesn't make sense to me nothing really makes sense because i think unfortunately or maybe fortunately for this humans are a part of it i mean think about it for a second there are people and i love this ok i really love the fact that people pimped out golf carts and drive around r v parks i think it's brilliant it doesn't make sense but it's actually brilliant somebody invented lemon flavored yogurt i have no idea how lemons in dairy products go together but it's brilliant it's awesome and of course i'm sure the inventors of the internet would not be really keen on knowing that almost all of it is just filled with  videos it doesn't again make a lot of sense but you should just go for be open and let a surprise you i do have a story because if you ever were in my classroom i love to use stories that are somewhat emblem and this one is is one that i really cherish i think about it very often and it's one of the africa stories for those of you familiar so i was very lucky enough to have a brother who is able to travel around quite a bit and he spent a lot of time in africa and west africa and so i had a chance to go join him in for about six months or so we traveled around west africa and it was unbelievable life changing experience for me the same reasons i've just talked about what we were in mali which is a very poor country impoverished country i should say while we're in mali we were waiting to get on this boat to go up the river to go up the river and go to the town it's a real town and we've heard about it but timbuktu we're actually going to timbuktu is in the middle of nowhere it's so hard to get to it's name is quite apt and as we're going where we got on this boat we made a little spot on the roof of the boat and it's hot i mean a desert you know it's it's hot and i needed something from the sun and sun was just really we're on the top of this this boat the sun is just beat down on us going to a three day boat ride up that is place and so i told my brothers like look i'm going to run off to the market down here and i'm just going to try to find a hat now one thing about traveling in west africa it's very difficult for many many reasons emotional and physical or whatnot but one of the things that was challenging is that because it's such an impoverished country there's lots of you know kids asking for things from you and you kind of get surrounded and you want to help and you have the power to help but you don't really and so it's just it's really difficult thing and everyone's asking from you and you just want to shut off you just shut off like no no no no we kind of keep walking but this time i got off the boat and i walked to the market as one little boy came up and he said going to go which is french for gift and i ain't no no no no and i kind of kept walking but he stayed with me and just one kid he stayed with me and i started walking through the market looking for things and finding hats and i pick up a hat he's still there and i'm like i say ball like it's good is it not you know no i'm not ok so then we started having this moment together you know like i put on a hat i'm like oh and he's like no and then the final you know put on the big read hats you know like something you would never wear in public unless you're in the  and and finally i pick to head out and he's like oh you know you know something like that my friend because he tells really good and so finally got to hand this took like forty minutes maybe it was a long time we spent some time together  we were actually laughing having fun so i start to walk back to the boat and he was like miss you could go and at this point i'm like ok ok so i gave him a little bit of money that i had in my pocket and he took off he just took off and i'm like i don't think much of it i mean that's what are you know what i expected that was typical that was common and then as i'm walking right before i get on the boat he comes back in and his hand is a sandwich he breaks it into any kids may have blown away i was absolutely blown away because that was real that was the real world that little moment and i've hung on to that that's almost twenty years ago at this point i've hung on a bit and i rarely forget that moment in that little kid because it was just unbelievably powerful that's what you should be open to recognize that's what you should be able to see live in those surprises cherish those surprises and love them because that's what it means to be human that's what i'm used to be real thank you so much class of twenty urban ok so it's been my experience whenever someone finds out that i'm graduating from high school they're mediately armed with the question what are you doing next i think most of the people sitting in front of me can relate to that experience it's kind of a perennial question from the grandparents aunts and uncles of the world and yes it is important to focus on what we'll do in life and you can we all ultimately want to be successful and make a difference in the world but i just think the doing gets a little bit too much attention personal satisfaction with the life one leads is more important than any visible success we can achieve so instead of trying to give insight about what we should do as we graduate from high school and begin to face the world i'd like to talk a little bit about how we should live so a wise man named open once said that we should allow life to surprise us well let me refine that charge to implore that we also allow people to surprise us in our lives going forward many of us will be joining new and diverse communities and it's only human to be nervous about such a transition but in our nervousness and insecurity let us not fall back upon what's familiar it'll be easy and maybe tempting to when you get to college or wherever you're going identify the people who do the same activities as you who maybe have the same religious beliefs as you or subconsciously the people who look similar to you but don't make your choices of who you connect with solely based on these external factors if instead you push yourself to connect with people you seem to have less in common with then it will force you to dig deeper to find the points on which you can relate and your relationships will be more nourishing and intimate because they'll be based on your inner person rather than on any outer similarities and in my experience there's no limit to who we can connect with in this way as many of you guys know i spent a semester away from m m u and in my program it was just twenty four kids most of whom i like from the beginning but there was one guy that rubbed me the wrong way so next or next year boy or cotton vinick shirt on the first day with like his she'd talked into the v he was too quick to talk with his gruff overbearing voice and he stood with his arms folded in front of his chest kind of like this like to push out his biceps i didn't say anything but i braced myself to have a continued distaste for this kid over the course of the semester but the opposite happened we started to go on runs together we did our homework next to each other and throughout so much life shared together we became close ignoring what put me off initially i found max to be one of the most genuine and devoted people i've ever met with a  dry sense of sarcastic humor and in spending time with me i think max may have realized that he didn't need to put i'll put on any airs to impress people i don't think the sun glasses ever made their way back to the view of his shirt and i was  any new community will be filled with max's don't be intimidated instead empathize with their insecurity other people harbor the same fears about meeting you as you do about meeting them rather than holding on to initial judgments put energy into connecting so that people who you might otherwise avoid have the space to expose what they have to offer it might surprise you how interesting insightful and caring people tend to be at their core thank you great job asher we would like to now acknowledge mount mansfield union high school highest honor the citizenship award presented to seniors for outstanding service and leadership throughout all four years of high school would julia done an asher lare small please come forward to receive the m m u citizenship award for two thousand and fifteen chair of the board of school directors and superintendent of schools these students have satisfactory completed the prescribed course of study according to the acquirements of the state of vermont the chit in the supervisory union and the board of school directors from out means when high school i recommend that they be recognized as graduates of mt mansfield union high school the class of two thousand and fifteen thank you by virtue of the power and feel union high school and it's as the chair the school board i accept your recommendation it is now time for the awarding of diplomas for the awarding of diplomas parents and family members are welcome to take photos and videos and come down to the front we ask that you please return to your c as soon as you have completed taking photographs and take care not to block the path of graduates we also have a professional photographer taking photos today a link to the photos we placed on our website on monday we also have a video of today's  sweet mouth means well you know high school counselors please come forward to begin the reading of names nicholas edward adam alex john angeleno donovan lee christie bay jessica marie barn travis nolan benson jason thomas  matthew caleb blow molly mitchell burke danielle pauline bushy riley and butler maria assume tucker  alex jane carrier garrett paxman carter nathaniel harrison carter daniel matthew champlin tyler james charter gabriel michael chase ross corey cooper wayne francisco to the third shelby renee cross danielle amanda cumming riley liam cumming you know mackenzie been less maria juliana do we morgan abigail dr will this christopher paul irks justin michael walter fisher nicole rose fortune page marie free guard kristen nicole spencer farrington glanville jordan ra james grab albert john christopher william griffin nicole league paul haley conor mckay hamilton elizabeth mariah hammond william robert nicole hill logan and jeremy hypes molly regina hoffman catherine grace patrick john kelly sage august townsend can tell benjamin john colby chandler knight molly joanne larson nathan william leach madeline eva light avery elizabeth lindy alexander leave mcdonald catherine and justin oh martin adrian carvin moran joanna elizabeth mor andrew james taylor nelson elizabeth marie michael ryan o'connor matthew lewis alexander cameron joseph preston nicholas henry rob david avram robert gerald francis reston junior david just in shank kyle anthony samantha hilary catherine stuart jessie hitchcock street hannah rose sylvester samuel roberts or  ryan matthew van horn sierra rose shane timothy wheeler brian wilson wendy catherine right and vanessa and marie young men on behalf of the faculty staff administration in the board of directors is my pleasure to congratulate the class of two thousand and fifteen i would i would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of those of you who spent countless hours preparing for an honor in the seniors this graduation week specifically i'd like to thank our class marshals abby daniel all over sloan i would be remiss if i didn't mention that this is the last class to graduate under the auspices of the mount mansfield union school district and i want to think all the people in the communities that have volunteered their time to be on the school board in to lead this school district to producing graduates such as this so i want to thank those folks throughout the years throughout the past forty eight years who donated their time a couple reminders for parents project grad meets at m m u at seven forty five tonight and you pick them up to morrow morning at six thirty am if the audience could please remain at their seats until all graduated students have exited the gymnasium this concludes the commencement exercise remount majored in high school with the graduates please turn your attention to your class marshall's ra's move your tassels from right to left and proceed with the recession