Below is a copy of the commencement speech I was honored to deliver to the amazing kids in the Iola-Scandinavia graduating class of 2017:
Iola-Scandinavia Class of 2017, I stand before you today, humbled by the honor of addressing you one last time. I want to thank you, class of 2017. Thank you for being the class of individuals that you are; thank you for, what’s the best way to put this... challenging us…??... Yes, challenging us, every step of your educational career here at Iola-Scandinavia. You’ve challenged all of us, your teachers, parents, coaches, and all of your many other supporters, in ways that we never before imagined. Honestly, once all of you have crossed this stage and successfully navigated through the very difficult flower ceremony at the end, I’m sure there will be a collective sigh of relief from all of your teachers and everyone else seated here today. This is not, however, because we are glad to be done with you. Rather, just as each of you are thinking “whew, I can’t believe I made it” all of your parents, teachers, and supporters who have put their energies into seeing you succeed are thinking the same thing…”whew, I can’t believe I made it.”
You’ve challenged us, class of 2017, in countless ways and we are better educators and better people for having known you and having had the pleasure of being a part of your education. Often when people think about teaching, they think it’s a one way street of teachers teaching and students learning. But that is not the reality. The reality is, as teachers, and I’m sure your parents and guardians would agree, we are constantly learning from you. You have challenged us to reflect upon our own practice and figure out how to connect with you as individual learners and as individual young-adults who are trying to figure out this thing called life. From my own personal experience in nine years of teaching, your class has, more than any class before, continuously challenged me to reflect upon how I teach, what I teach, why I teach, and, most importantly, how I engage with you. It has truly been a pleasure, class of 2017, to see each of you grow into the young adults and learners that you are today...though I will be honest, I have more than a couple of new gray hairs to remember you by! Some of which are even named after some of you...you know who you are!
Members of the class of 2017, each and every one of you has something to contribute to our society and our world...a skill, a passion, an idea, whatever it might be...and whatever you end up doing, whether it’s mucking out a barn, setting broken bones, changing light bulbs in streetlights, engineering the next technological breakthrough, or staying at home and raising a family, your contribution will bring value to our society. How you go about making your contribution is up to you. Economics pop-quiz time...you don’t have to raise your hand to respond, just blurt it out: Fill in the blank...In the big picture, economics is the study of…. (wait for answer) choices! Economics is the study of choices or how people make choices or decisions and the impact of those choices. As you venture out into the wider world beyond this building and beyond this community, you will meet many new and different people, you will encounter new ideas, and you will be presented with many new challenges. The choices you make in these situations will impact, for better or worse, your ability to make your contribution to society and the world and your choices will impact your ability to reach your goals. Let me share a short story, or tangent, from my experience, if I may…
Picture 20 year-old Mr. Bassett, Junior at Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI (go V-Hawks!). It’s a weekday morning but I didn’t have any classes scheduled. Usually, this would mean an early-morning quality breakfast followed by a few hours in the library...or, on the rare occasion, sleeping in or, even more rare, getting in a few hours of World of Warcraft. On this particular early morning (it was almost 8am) I was making my way to Viterbo’s admission office to help out with a tour and presentation to over fifty eighth graders. That day, I would end up spending almost four hours straight around eighth graders from La Crosse Aquinas middle school, giving them a tour of the university and then engaging them in a question/answer session followed by lunch. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love working with middle schoolers, I love their enthusiasm and ability to ask incredibly specific and highly unlikely hypothetical “what if” questions, but there is a limit to how much direct, uninterrupted contact a person can tolerate with middle school age students and, when you’re a 20 year old, that limit is far less than four hours. Anyways, I was asked to help out with this event and I made the choice to say yes; I was asked to give a ten minute talk to the students and then answer any and all questions they might have, I made the choice to say “yeah, that sounds like fun!”; and I made the choice to do this with a smile on my face and enthusiasm that, to be honest, was at times, quite fake.
That morning I interacted with many eighth graders, their chaperones, and teachers and when it was done, I moved on with my day and didn’t think much more of it. Fast-forward two years. Now twenty-two, I was putting a roof on a house in Holmen, WI in the ninety-degree heat of a balmy, mid-August morning. From the roof I was working on, I could see one of the elementary buildings in the Holmen School District, a bitter reminder of my failed interview for a social studies teaching position in that district, the only one in the area posted that summer. Standing on that roof, two weeks before school would start, I had, at that point, resigned myself to the fact that I would be making my contribution to society in the foreseeable future by roofing houses and doing basic home remodels instead of sharing my passion for social studies and learning in a classroom of my own. Then, shortly after lunch, as the heat of the afternoon rose into the triple digits and I pondered whether our boss would be calling it a day soon, my cell phone, a flip phone, the latest in cell phone technology, started ringing. I reached the top of the ladder, set the bundle of shingles on my shoulder down on the roof and pulled out my phone, grateful for the distraction and reprieve from hauling shingles. It was an unknown number. I answered. The voice on the other end said this: “Hi, my name is Patty Gallagher-Kosmatka and I am the principal at Aquinas Middle School. If you remember, you spoke to some of our students two years ago when you were a student at Viterbo. One of our social studies teachers will not be returning for this upcoming school year and I immediately thought of you. I was wondering if you have secured a teaching position for this fall?” I responded that I had not. To which she replied “would you like to come in for an interview?” Twenty-four hours later, I signed my first contract to be a teacher.
The choices I made two years prior to standing on that hot, suburban roof led me to my first teaching job which gave me valuable experience that helped me get my job here, at what I truly believe is the best school, with the best kids in all of central Wisconsin.
Graduates, you won’t know if that person standing in the corner of the room watching your presentation to a bunch of middle schoolers is going to be the person to offer you a job two years from now that will eventually lead to your dream job...but you all have the ability to recognize right from wrong; you all have the ability to treat others better than you would like to be treated; and you all have the ability to engage others with compassion or at the very least, tolerance, when their ideas and beliefs differ from yours. In everything you do, you control your actions, your emotions, and your words. You get to make the choice. I challenge you, Iola-Scandinavia, class of 2017, to make good choices. The reality, however, is that sometimes you won’t. Life is hard; the typical adult makes over 35,000 decisions every day. But don’t fret! Consider the following as you go forth from this place today:
Be who you want to be…
Who you know you can be…
Who you know you should be.
Every day, live your life with a purpose.
Your time is short.
Attempt greatness.
Seek to inspire.
Share your love, talents, and joy.
In doing this, there will be no failure…
No disappointment…
No remorse…
There will only be the knowledge you lived a life worth living.
Congratulations, Iola-Scandinavia Class of 2017 and thank you.
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