Commencment at Emerald City High School

I would like to take this momentously grand and special occasion to to thank our School Board, teachers, and families for being here, today, on the occasion of the 137th graduating class from Emerald City High School.  As the Valedictorian of this class, I have been asked to say a few words.  You don’t want a long and drawn out journey, down memory lane, because our future is before us.

During our time at good old ECHS – Go WIZARDS! YES! ALL RIGHT! – our classes have taught us a great deal about life inside the Emerald City, and life in faraway places, Like Munchkinland and the and amongst the Quadlings.  We have learned how to “Rub Rub Here” and “Scrub Scrub There,” in the applied arts, how to drive carriages, and how to dye shoes to match ones gown – especially if it’s in a shade a green.

But we have also learned lessons from places so far away that they have names like “Omaha” and “Kansas.”

But out of all these lessons, there are some truths I have discovered that are universal that I would like to share.

The first of these is that everything is not Emerald green.  Emerald green is an aspirational color, but it is not the only color we should reach for.  There is blue and there is yellow and when you meld them, they make green.  But you can adapt that green by peppering in a bit of blue here, and perhaps an additional daub of extra yellow to make “Teal” and even “Lime”.  From that, we can learn never to settle for just plain seafoam green.

The second lesson is that we never know what journey someone has taken to get here.  Some people take the Yellow Brick Road.  Others can literally drop in on us without a moment’s notice.   A friend may come to you, self-absorbed in her own bubble.  And we welcome them and help come out of their own little world. 

The third lesson is sometimes,  there are those who may come into your life on a smoke-belching broom, which can cloud the sky.  Yes, it’s messy, sooty and befouls the air, we have to remember that “hurt people hurt people.”  Be kind.  Someone could have taken of value from them, or worse removed something from the corpse of their sister. Be kind but be smart.  Always be at the ready with a bucket of cold water at the handy if things go awry.

The fourth lesson is that somewhere along the road to our destiny, we will meet people who will do anything for us, even if it means getting the stuffing knocked out of them.

The fifth lesson is that if there is a curtain, we need to look behind it, especially when someone says “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”  Surely that man is back there for a reason, for no one stands behind a curtain without cause.  Expose him and demand to know why he is behind that curtain!

The sixth lesson is that you must not enter into a field of poppies.  When someone directs you through the poppies, just say “NO!”  Because once you frolic through a field of poppies, you'll keep needing to find bigger and bigger fields of poppies.  And from there, it's a hop skip and a jump before you start seeing flying monkeys everywhere.  Just remember, "NO!" and you'll never have that flying monkey on your back.

The seventh lesson is that when someone wants to give you a pair of ruby slippers, ask yourself, is anything in life worth anything, free?

The eighth lesson is to find something that you are really good at and go for it.  If chopping wood is your passion, don't make a suit out of tin, but chose a miracle fabric that shed water.  If you want to live as a cowardly lion, excel at sniveling. If you want to be a scarecrow, well, learn to dance. Dance? Yes, dance.  Because at some point, we all have to be able to dance, and dance like no one else is looking because that is what makes life sweet. 

The ninth lesson is to plan.  OZ has one of the greatest longevity rates in the land, but at some point, you'll want to set sail in a balloon, into the sunset, for a faraway land.  So learning to plan and navigate is really important or you could end up in a place called Elizabeth, New Jersey or worse, Steubenville in something called Ohio. 

But most importantly, the tenth lesson is that we must realize that our lives are our own.  Our obligation is to stay fixated on our day to day lives and to cast uninvited strangers in this land upon their own journey lest anything happen to us.  Lead a teenager throughout their entire adolescence and they will need to be led for the rest of their life.  Teach them to walk on their own two feet, and they will be able to outrun flying monkeys on their own.

That is the way of OZ. 

If they find their way back and haven't been turned into a newt, well maybe then, we can tell them that all along they had the ability to be the best version of themselves all along.  But that only through their own heart’s desire will they find the way back home.  Thank you.