Graduation Speech

When I first began considering a graduation speech, my initial impulse was to spend this time discussing the advent of college preparation at Ridgemont, and the rise of empty values. I thought it would be a good chance to point out the fact that the quest for college admission has ground some of the best people I know into pulp, and that for the most part it seems as though both their parents, and to a large extent the school, seem afraid to confront that system for what it is. I wanted to speak to the changes happening here at Ridgemont, that the focus of the school is being shifted from educating for character to trying to improve the efficiency with which Ridgemont can heard students into the Ivy League. It seemed to me that my entire fourteen years here had led to the final understanding that a lot of what we have been told to strive for amounts to little more than bowing down before Mammon.

But, upon reflection, I realized that I would not be doing justice to the school and the class I love if I spent my time up here attacking the parents and the school in that manner. I really owe the school and my peers a lot more than that. If it were not for my Ridgemont education, I probably would never have seen the system for what it is. Ridgemont taught me to despise that system by showing me a better way to do things; by showing me that education, success, and happiness do not have to come at the expense of others, that I could go further if I learned to help, and to be helped, by those around me, rather than compete against them. Ridgemont's emphasis on process versus product will stay with me for the rest of my life.

So when I sat down and tried to pull together what it was about Ridgemont that made it an interesting and wonderful place to attend school, I remembered that my friend Larry had once pointed out to me the distinction between the two types of people that you can associate with. There are those that care about your soul, and those that don't. I think that the Ridgemont education, for many in my class, was one that cared for our souls, and this is what distinguishes it from other schools, and this is why it is so unlike the real world in here.