Monika Dharia initially didn’t know the first person who greeted her on her first day of at Mineola High School, but the Class of 2015’s valedictorian smiled and waved back at him anyway.
Four years later, they found themselves graduating together.
“He made teachers as well as students laugh, and he simply let everyone around him know he was their friend while also being a role model and mentor,” she said in her address during the school’s 124th commencement service Saturday at the Tilles Center at LIU Post.
“And with that,” she added, “I’d like to take a moment to honor our principal, Mr. Ed Escobar, who is graduating today with us.”
Escobar said the Class of 2015 will always hold a special place in his heart, and he advised the graduates find their passions in life and embrace the challenges they’ll face in the years ahead.
“Each of you has left your own impact on one another,” he said, closing the book on his 10-year tenure as Mineola High School’s principal. “Be conscious of the impact you’ll continue to have on the lives of those around you.”
Mineola School Superintendent Michael Nagler in his address recalled a conversation with a friend in which they questioned the work ethic of recent college graduates, concluding they “work to live, rather than live to work.”
“While i’m not advocating that you let your job consume you,” he said, “I am saying that loving what you do every day makes work a lot easier.”
Nagler said he and his friend grouped work into three categories: a job, a profession and a calling, defining the last as a time in which one’s “profession and life become intertwined.”
He realized, Nagler said, the friend he had the conversation with was the best example of someone who had found his calling.
That person, Nagler said, was Escobar.
“Graduates, I implore you to find your calling. Do not work for the sake of working, follow your heart to the work that calls to you,” he said. “Not only will you be happier, but those you encounter will also receive a huge benefit, for those who truly love their work can’t help but touch other people’s lives.”
In his salutatorian speech, Michael Woytysiak celebrated the achievements of the Class of 2015 and reflected on memories of class trips to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia as well as the senior prom as times he said he’d never forget.
“It is just incredible how quickly time flies by,” he said. “…Looking back, it is clear to say we have made these four significant years of our lives very memorable.”
Dharia challenged her classmates to chase “the American Dream” in the years ahead, but warned them that “there is so much more to success than the American Dream.”
“Success is making a positive impact on the lives of others by doing something you love,” she said.
