End of your Childhood

Class of 2009, welcome to the end of your childhood. Tonight, each of you stops living in the preset routine of the daily monotony you have grown comfortable with over the past twelve years. The path of your life is no longer in the hands of your elders. Starting tonight, you are no longer required to conform to the mold which has up to this point been your guide. Your actions can no longer be blamed on a system which you had no say in. Tonight, you become your own person. Whichever path you have chosen to take, it is now your responsibility to travel it with dignity and commitment.

Being your own person is perhaps the most difficult task you will undertake. Every decision you make from this point on has the potential to affect everyone you come in contact with. By coming here, to this vocational-technical school, you have already demonstrated that you are willing to choose a different path from the one others have defined for you. I encourage you to reach beyond the oft-repeated and overly familiar rhetoric and choose the path in life best suited for you, whether it be the trail which has yet to be blazed or the road most traveled. Do not conform for the sake of conformity, neither should you go against the grain for the sake of being original.

This freedom comes with a price, though. Starting tonight, your safety net is gone. No longer will mediocre work be praised and honored, as sometimes happens in school, nor will you be sent to ISS for wrongdoing any more. The stakes are higher in the real world, and tonight, there's no going back. I encourage you to be responsible in your choices. Each one of you has great potential for good in this world. Each one of you is now highly skilled in your vocational area. As you go out into the real world tonight, I encourage you to do your best in all things. In the words of King Solomon, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Remember that everything you do from now on will affect not only you, but those around you. You are the future business leaders of America. After tonight, there's no more assigned seating, so I encourage you to stand up and take charge of your future. You cannot allow others to run it for you. You must be willing to be the creative and intelligent people I know you all are, and you must take a stand for what's right. When you see an injustice in the world, when you see suffering, when you see a corrupt system abusing it's power, you must stand up to it. No longer can any of us sit idly by and allow things to simply take their course. When you see something wrong with the world, it is now your responsibility as adults to fix it. I encourage you to become an example for those around you.

Responsibility is a tricky subject, so let me define it. Responsibility is not passing the buck. Responsibility never tires of doing good. Responsibility is not running from your problems. It's not found in drugs, movies, magazines, or video games. Responsibility means diligently pursuing that which is good. Responsibility means being completely honest. Responsibility means doing the right thing even when it hurts. In the words of Ellen White, “The greatest want of the world is the want of men,--men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”

Class of 2009, welcome to the first day of your adulthood. Bear it well, and make us all proud. This is your chance to show the world what you're made of. Do not disappoint.