J.A. Fair graduation speech, 1985
I was the salutatorian when I graduated from J.A. Fair High School in 1985 and was honored to deliver one of the keynote addresses at our graduation ceremony. With our 20th-year reunion coming up this weekend, I thought it would be interesting to find out what I actually said so many years ago. So I dug through some of my old files and actually found a copy of my speech. After reading it again, I began to wonder if, considering today’s post-modern attitudes of relativism and religious neutrality, would someone be able to deliver the same speech to a graduating class today, uncensored. Judge for yourself:
Through the influence of my parents’ wisdom, I’ve come to realize the truth in the following passage. It is my father’s favorite, and was written over 2,000 years ago by one of the wisest men who ever lived, King Solomon:
Enjoy all the days of this meaningless life that God had given you under the sun — all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:9-11
There have been many times this past year that we have seen just how true this is. For example, our football team was not always the biggest or strongest or fastest. Yet with hard work, dedication and guidance, they were able to succeed and bring a new pride to our school, as well as set high standards for the years to come. This same truth is evident in the many academic achievements of students this year. Though we are relatively new and inexperienced, 21 of our graduates received scholarships, including a Governor’s Scholar, of which only 100 are awarded in the state. All in all, this has been a very successful year, and will remain as a pleasant memory for the faculty, as well as for the students.
This success has not been solely due to talent, but also to hard work by the students, and unswerving devotion and support from parents and staff.
But once we begin to move out into the real world on our own, we will slowly lose touch with these people, and be forced to become independent. That same support that has been so valuable, and will be recognized as more valuable still when we look back, will no longer be there. People move; and we lose touch. Old acquaintances are replaced by new ones; and people die. Yet through all this, we will be able to cope, and succeed, because of the example and help we have so generously been given by these people.
With them as our inspiration, it is our duty to them, to ourselves, and to God, to work with all our might in whatever our hand finds to do. It is here that the wisdom of King Solomon is evident. It doesn’t mean the race is over, just because someone is bigger, stronger, swifter or wiser. Remember David and Goliath, where one man, half the size of the other, devastated the pride of the Philistine army. Time and chance, under the Lord’s hand, happened to them all.
But this time is short, as T.S. Eliot reminds us in Murder in the Cathedral, where he examines the spiritual crisis of Thomas Becket, not as the archbishop of Canterbury, but as a single, unique man with only one life and one soul to save or lose, and only one time to save or lose it in.
He says:
We do not know very much of the future, except that from generation to generation, the same things happen again and again. Men learn little from others’ experience, but in the life of one man, never the same time returns.
And that is why we must continually strive to do better now. We must fight harder and work longer to succeed, no matter what the odds say.
I challenge you, as we must challenge ourselves, to make that time and to make that chance. And not only to succeed for ourselves, but also for those who taught us how, so we, too, can some day be the inspiration for another … for we will never walk this way again.
Thank you.
I don’t remember if I got choked up 20 years ago when you delivered that last line… but you got me tonight! What a great speech. You really were a smart kid :). We’re headed on vacation so will miss the reunion. Hope you and Penny have a ball… say hello to everyone for me!
Thanks, Margo! Sorry you won’t be there, we would love to see you and those darling kids of yours. Let us know if you pass our way, you know where we are!