Speaking to his fellow graduates at the Paul D. Schreiber High School graduation on Thursday, Dexter Jarrach said when he entered high school, he had no idea how it would turn out.
“I was kind of shy and kind of quiet and kind of chubby, and I was uncomfortable with myself and uncomfortable around other kids,” Jarrach said.
High school was much different than middle school, where everyone was close and similar, he said.
“High school is a place where one day someone decided they would fill a place with exactly half children and half full-grown adults and let them figure it out amongst themselves,” he said.
But, he said, as he grew from a freshman to a sophomore and a sophomore to a junior and, finally, to a senior, things started to change.
“But today isn’t about me,” he said. “It’s about us and we’ve all had those stories. We all use to be awkward looking fish in that big, scary pond, but now we’re bigger, better looking fish who really like their pond and are a little afraid to leave it behind.”
Now that the class is graduating, he said, everyone will become a small fish again, but they’ve been through it before.
“And if growing up with all of you has proven to me one thing, it’s that we’re going to be just fine,” he said.
As the sun set behind Jarrach and the rest of the graduating class of 405 on Seeber Field, Craig Weiss, the assistant principal, said that sunsets — like graduations — are often considered endings.
“The sun doesn’t set,” he said. “It never moves at all; it’s us that move. And so while today might seem like a brilliant ending to a glorious four years, the reality is that this is just a point in your lives.”
“Look forward,” he said. “Look at the path ahead. Only by looking forward can we really have a perspective on where we’ve been. And each of you have had different paths.”
School officials who addressed the class of 2017 reminded the graduates of the education they had received.
“You’re leaving us with a high-quality education from a community that values its schools,” Superintendent of Schools Kathleen Mooney said. “Not every school offers the rich curriculum that we provide or successfully manages the delicate balance between diversity and unity the way we do.”
The class collectively has been awarded more than $2 million in scholarships, Mooney said.
