8 Comments

Congratulations that your children and you were graduation speakers. All the speeches were moving. I wonder if this is a family record!

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Thanks! I was so proud of Noah and Casey!

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As your parents were proud of you. Singing at so many graduations as well.

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Yes! And I sang and played piano at my own graduation too.

But the real highlight for me of my graduation had nothing to do with me. One of my classmates, who had been an extraordinarily gifted athlete but had been gravely injured while warming up for a gymnastics meet, walked up to get his diploma. That was the greatest achievement of all that day.

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I loved revisiting. Noah and Casey’s graduation speeches and getting a glimpse of your, but you’re right/ the show stopper was George Saunders who combined wit and wisdom with a very simple, powerful message - the role - the value - the power of kindness. I loved it. Thank you for putting this provocative, charming assemblage together. You are amazing. I think thoughtful / in all it’s ramifications- may be right up there with kindness. Big hugs, Louise

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Isn’t that Saunders speech powerful? I love it when he asks What are we waiting for? We can start being kind right now!

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Jeez, all of these were way better than any of mine. My high school valedictorian fell back on Frost's "The Road Not Taken," but she did the school-friendly version that is only the first and last stanzas, and leaves out the middle two. My language arts teacher in junior year had been so annoyed by all of the inspirational posters with the incomplete poem on them, he committed a whole class to analyzing the poem in its entirety... but she was in the other language arts teacher's class.

I loved Noah's - "keep the sticking to your guns within reason" is great advice!

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I was in grad school before I read the whole poem, believe it or not. And when I read it, I was gobsmacked. Whoa! I thought. This is much darker and more ambiguous than everyone thinks!

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