Read the full text of House Senate President Fatema Bandukwala's welcome remarks at the Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2006 on May 20:
Good morning to everyone here - from the faculty, to the students, to the families from all over the world, and especially to the Class of 2006. I am sure it has been a long journey for everyone that has arrived here today and as we know, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” The students here today might agree that Darlington has been a stop on our lifelong journey where we have learned a little bit how to live and laugh.
People often say, “Laughter is the best medicine." To my classmates, this quote coming from me may seem like a light medication, but laughter is a contagious cure. Many of us have spent a lot of our time laughing through movies. We all have our favorite movies where we quote lines verbatim amusing our friends. A good rule that came out from a comedy last summer, “Rule number 76: No excuses, play like a champion." It seems that rule number 76 applies to this class, with no excuses, we definitely played like champions and we went through the majority of it with great achievement and smiles on our faces.
Part of our journey at Darlington consisted greatly of various athletics in which the whole school helped to restore our roar. Through the different seasons, we all enjoyed watching our classmates so much. We had the bleachers packed with fans. But our bleachers were not just packed; we were crowded with costumes and colors. I am pretty sure Alex Dunlap, Elliott Harrison and just about anyone with school spirit at our games have enthused a whole school activity - bleacher creatures. On Fridays, whether it was during football or basketball season, if there was a game students would come out and roar as Chewbacca, Spider Man, even Snow White and other characters we last saw in Disney movies. We even rode buses down to Greene County and Jonesboro dressed in the finest fan attire. If anyone missed the Christmas Dance, there was another chance to dress up in suits and dresses - the Coosa vs. Darlington Basketball game where everyone came to spread our Tiger spirit at the Eagles Ball.
During the school day, many of us would disappear into the School Store where we could not only munch away at Miss Sunshine’s or Cloudy’s chocolate chip cookies and French fries, but this is where we could depend on finding something to laugh upon. Watching students dance across the black and white checked floor to songs playing from the jukebox, the television, the computer or the XM radio was always a thrilling moment that anyone freely joined. Freshman year, walking into the school store was always a careful move, but as we have made our journey through high school we have fearlessly made our way to the top. This past year, as we sat in the School Store as jubilant seniors (whether it was 8 a.m. or 12 in the afternoon during a lunch period), we had fun getting the scoop on things varying from the previous night’s school games, television shows and especially each other.
Not only are we going to leave Darlington with the wisdom and knowledge we have learned about the world from our teachers, but we have personally explored a few parts of the world together. At our junior prom, we had a great Night in Paris. This year, we all “let the good times roll” for Mardi Gras at Homecoming. Recently, we had a little vacation to the beach, right here at school on the cove in a kiddie pool with beach chairs under the shade of an umbrella. During Tigerfest, we ate funnel cakes, and kaleido-sno, boxed with our friends and listened to Passafire [and the music of] one of our talented classmates, Jacob Malone. Along with different locations, we also enjoy traveling through different decades. We most commonly visited the 80s at different dances and athletic events, with the boys in sweatbands or jumpsuits and the girls in our leg warmers and side ponytails.
The years we have spent here and the years we have yet to spend in the world are well defined by a few lines in a Jack Johnson song I am sure Blakeney Spong, and hopefully many of you, will sing along to:
We’re just moments.
We’re clever, but we’re clueless.
We’re just human, amusing but confusing.
We’re helping, rebuilding and we’re growing.
The moments we have, we are all so clever. I hope everyone keeps up with their knowledge and obtains even more wisdom. In other moments, we are just as clueless, which usually leads some of us to a smile, or maybe even to a desire to learn. Thankfully we are continuously amusing ourselves, letting go of some of the things that are confusing us. Through life, we are all helping each other rebuild and grow.
As Peter Whatley said in April at a barbeque, “These are the good times." We all have had great times at Darlington. A humorous announcement during assembly, an amusing comment or even a funny gesture by a friend may have caused some of the laughter we remember. As we keep these memories, it is exciting to know our times will only get better from here! For all of us who have been here at Darlington - from four years, to 14 years, to 28 years, like Mr. Rhodes - it is as Mr. Van Es said, “While the days have been so long, the years have flown by."
Since we have been able to understand the numbers "2006," they have had a special ring. These numbers always sounded large and far away, until finally 2005 came to its end. “Day by day things don’t seem to change, but then suddenly we are here and everything is different." Suddenly we have come to the end of our stop at the DarWorld upon our journey. I think we are all ready to continue our day-by-day journeys. Whether our next stop is in Alabama, Colorado, New York, North Carolina, Spain or anywhere else in this world, I hope for everyone to live through each part of your journey with a smile or even a little laughter! Ronald Reagan said, “Life is a grand, sweet song, so start the music." Thank you to all the teachers, coaches and especially our classmates for the memories we have created and will remember through our journey. Congratulations on your many achievements and good luck to the Class of 2006!
