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Class president challenges graduates to “be someone”
May 20, 2002 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
Presented by Jeff Hortman ’02 during 97th Commencement Exercises
On behalf of the 2002 graduating class of Darlington School, I would like to welcome you to our commencement exercises and thank you for being here. I’d like to take a moment to thank our families and friends as well as the faculty and administration of Darlington School for years of support and many warm memories.
With that being said I’ll go ahead and shift gears to say that I know these kids out there in red ties and white dresses as well as anyone could. I’ve known this class for thirteen years, some kids for longer, and if there is one thing about this class that I am confident about, it has got to be their ability to have a good time.
In Rome, Ga., you learn to get creative with ways to have fun. I remember last year in my English III Honors class we spent almost two full days completely intrigued by the packaging product for fragile shipments known as “Packaged Air,” which found its way into our classroom via the UPS box addressed to our teacher. Our class e-mailed the company with a genuinely sarcastic concern for this company’s blatant exploitation of a natural resource such as air—I would like to reiterate this was an Honors class.
On the weekends you might see 15 of us all pile out of a suburban in front of Applebee’s or Chili’s, or maybe see a few guys relaxing to the sounds of the Allman Brothers. On other occasions a variety of scenes may have been witnessed in the cove. One might see a group of Mao enthusiasts playing their own self-created card game, or maybe a classmate swallowing a goldfish in one gulp for a free lunch, or perhaps on a more eventful day you might see a muscle-bound football player chasing dogs around the lawn while holding false tree branch antlers to his head.
At all the dances, our class has to win the most original dancing methods. It may never look pretty, but we all have a good time. To win Stucco days we are famous for volunteering our male classmates as cross-dressing "lipsyncers." Probably in the parking lot right now everyone could spot a few trucks that have recently visited Darlington’s private mud hole located behind the Mayfield dairy. So as you can see, we won’t ever have to worry about enjoying life and having fun.
But as I ran over the faces of these classmates in my mind, I realized that at this point not many of us know where we’ll be in five years. Not only do we not know where we’ll be, but most of us don’t even know where we want to be in five years. Don’t get me wrong; this is not an abnormal or bad situation at all, but it is a common ground from which we will all start, a common ground from which today we will begin to scatter. And while each of you are busy scattering, busy building your own lives, and busy doing, busy working, I ask you today not to ever forget the importance of simply being, being someone, being a friend, being a father, being a smiling face that holds an open door for a stranger, being someone of simple purpose.
Perhaps none of us here will ever have the chance to become the President, maybe only a handful of us will ever directly save someone’s life, many of us will never do the things that most people think make someone of importance. So many of us will be out there trying to make the big name, busily trying to do something, and in the shuffle we might forget the importance of simply standing for something, or being someone.
Whether you like it or not, over your lifetime your individual life will have an immeasurable impact on thousands of people. What they take from you and what you take from them all weigh into the people we are at the end of the day. This impact we have on other people doesn’t usually come from your last name or what you’ve accomplished, not from the hands you shake, or the car you drive. Nobody walks around all day with a resume taped on his or her chest, but everyone carries who he or she is with him or her at every moment of every day.
This personality surges outward and clings onto to others at moments you would least suspect. And at the end of the day, knowing the possibility of your impact, remember not just to do things in your life, but be someone, be someone you wouldn’t mind spending the day with.
Thank you.
On behalf of the 2002 graduating class of Darlington School, I would like to welcome you to our commencement exercises and thank you for being here. I’d like to take a moment to thank our families and friends as well as the faculty and administration of Darlington School for years of support and many warm memories.
With that being said I’ll go ahead and shift gears to say that I know these kids out there in red ties and white dresses as well as anyone could. I’ve known this class for thirteen years, some kids for longer, and if there is one thing about this class that I am confident about, it has got to be their ability to have a good time.
In Rome, Ga., you learn to get creative with ways to have fun. I remember last year in my English III Honors class we spent almost two full days completely intrigued by the packaging product for fragile shipments known as “Packaged Air,” which found its way into our classroom via the UPS box addressed to our teacher. Our class e-mailed the company with a genuinely sarcastic concern for this company’s blatant exploitation of a natural resource such as air—I would like to reiterate this was an Honors class.
On the weekends you might see 15 of us all pile out of a suburban in front of Applebee’s or Chili’s, or maybe see a few guys relaxing to the sounds of the Allman Brothers. On other occasions a variety of scenes may have been witnessed in the cove. One might see a group of Mao enthusiasts playing their own self-created card game, or maybe a classmate swallowing a goldfish in one gulp for a free lunch, or perhaps on a more eventful day you might see a muscle-bound football player chasing dogs around the lawn while holding false tree branch antlers to his head.
At all the dances, our class has to win the most original dancing methods. It may never look pretty, but we all have a good time. To win Stucco days we are famous for volunteering our male classmates as cross-dressing "lipsyncers." Probably in the parking lot right now everyone could spot a few trucks that have recently visited Darlington’s private mud hole located behind the Mayfield dairy. So as you can see, we won’t ever have to worry about enjoying life and having fun.
But as I ran over the faces of these classmates in my mind, I realized that at this point not many of us know where we’ll be in five years. Not only do we not know where we’ll be, but most of us don’t even know where we want to be in five years. Don’t get me wrong; this is not an abnormal or bad situation at all, but it is a common ground from which we will all start, a common ground from which today we will begin to scatter. And while each of you are busy scattering, busy building your own lives, and busy doing, busy working, I ask you today not to ever forget the importance of simply being, being someone, being a friend, being a father, being a smiling face that holds an open door for a stranger, being someone of simple purpose.
Perhaps none of us here will ever have the chance to become the President, maybe only a handful of us will ever directly save someone’s life, many of us will never do the things that most people think make someone of importance. So many of us will be out there trying to make the big name, busily trying to do something, and in the shuffle we might forget the importance of simply standing for something, or being someone.
Whether you like it or not, over your lifetime your individual life will have an immeasurable impact on thousands of people. What they take from you and what you take from them all weigh into the people we are at the end of the day. This impact we have on other people doesn’t usually come from your last name or what you’ve accomplished, not from the hands you shake, or the car you drive. Nobody walks around all day with a resume taped on his or her chest, but everyone carries who he or she is with him or her at every moment of every day.
This personality surges outward and clings onto to others at moments you would least suspect. And at the end of the day, knowing the possibility of your impact, remember not just to do things in your life, but be someone, be someone you wouldn’t mind spending the day with.
Thank you.
