The Class of 2008 is ready to face the world
By John Tredrea
Perfect weather dominated by huge, bright white clouds that seemed motionless against their high jewel-blue background created the stage for Hopewell Valley Central High School’s 2008 commencement.
The unusual stillness of the sky seemed to freeze time as well, and what better notion than the temporary stoppage of the clock could there be for a high school graduation, where nostalgia for the past and hopeful anticipation of the future seem to divide one’s mind in half?
The soulful singing of “Stand by Me” by graduates struck just the right note for this kind of event in this kind of daytime weather, for this gathering of the 274 graduates to take one of their biggest steps into adulthood, from which of course there is no way back to childhood.
When the night has come, and land is dark
And the moon is the only sight we see
I won’t cry, I won’t cry, no, I won’t shed a tear
Just as long as you stand by me.
Hundreds of friends and relatives of the graduates gathered on the lacrosse field behind the high school June 19 to see the members of the Class of 2008 accept their diplomas. Also on hand were the members of the Hopewell Valley school board, Superintendent of Schools Judith Ferguson and Hopewell Township Deputy Mayor John Murphy, who read a proclamation listing the many accomplishments of the class in academics, athletics and other areas.
Valedictorian Marishka Agaskar’s speech began with a rhyming salute to her classmates derived from Dr. Seuss’ children’s book “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.”
“To Hopewell Valley’s Class of 2008 congratulations,” Marishka said. “Today is your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away! You have brains in your head; you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
Marishka dwelt on the liberating nature of choice.
“Not sure what to do with your life?” she asked rhetorically. “Not to worry. Dr. Seuss’ “Maybe You Should Fly a Jet” has a very long list of suggestions.
“Do you want to be a pet-
shop owner, a money owner or a slide tromboner? Keep your options open. Don’t make hasty choices you’ll regret, and don’t get locked down into something you won’t enjoy. Maybe you should fly a jet. Or maybe you should be a vet.
“The point is: It’s your future. You decide. Graduation is a big step in our lives. It is the culmination of 13 years of hard work, of waking up early, catching buses, memorizing dates and writing papers. It’s the end of a long but fulfilling part of our lives and the beginning of something more, something even better.”
Student speaker Max Orland advised his classmates that trying to think like the person one wants to become will help one become that person.
“I would ask you to consider what you want to be,” he said. “Not what you want to do or how you’d like to get there, but how you want to think when you have become what you’ve always dreamt. Think like that person, and you will find greatness around the bend.”
Max noted that this effort will be made in a world with a propensity for shocking, unexpected changes that affect us profoundly while we are undergoing our individual life-
changes.
“To say that we have shared only high school together would be inaccurate,” he told his classmates. “Most of us have been a class together for seven years now. Seven years. I wasn’t shaving seven years ago, and I don’t think I’d broken a hundred pounds, either. When we first became a class, the World Trade Center was just an obscure pair of very tall buildings and most of us couldn’t point out Iraq on a map.”
Max strove to fit the different kinds of people in his class into an idea that fit his theme of trying to think like the person one wants to be.
“Some of you may have changed as much as I have,” he said. “Some of you still want the same things you wanted when we were ‘tweens.’ Some of you are staring at me with blank faces and have no idea that’s OK, too. In fact, that has its own advantages you are unclaimed by any particular interest or bias and will be able to choose more freely from the thousand things that will cross your paths the next few years.”
And so they accepted their diplomas and hugs and gifts and congratulations. Then they marched off to music and exultantly scaled their caps into the sky, a first step on the odyssey to encounter “the thousand things.” Good luck!