Good afternoon class of 2010. Thank you for asking me to speak with you today. Before I begin, I should slip into something a bit more appropriate for the occasion.

One great thing about having a doctorate is that you get to design your own robe based on the schools you attended. Some of you might be surprised that the robe isn’t purple, but except for my alma mater, every school I have a degree from, including my high school, had either maroon or crimson as the school color. So I went with this.

The truth is, when I was first asked to give this address, I hesitated. I am ambivalent about graduation because I recognize the importance of honoring your achievements, but I have trouble saying goodbye. So why did I agree to speak this year - besides getting to wear my cap and gown? Two reasons, actually. I believe in a theory of convergence; I believe that events come together with a purpose. This year the invitation to speak coincided with two events that are significant to me.

The first, although I will return part time next year, this is the year I officially retire. I suppose you could say that I am graduating with you. I couldn’t think of a better class to share the day with. Your successes - athletic, artistic, musical, and academic - were amazing. More importantly you brought a wonderful feeling of caring and respect to CCHS.

The second event in which I found convergence is an anniversary of sorts. I graduated from high school fifty years ago today. For those of you who are trying to figure out how old that makes me, let me quote a student who, upon learning that I came to CCHS in 1968, exclaimed, “Doc, you’re older than dirt!” Now I don’t know how old dirt is, but it doesn’t seem possible that my graduation was so long ago; it seems like only yesterday; those fifty years have gone by in a heartbeat.

My sense of convergence was reinforced last week by two more events. First when you honored me with an appreciation in the yearbook, and I cannot thank you enough for that. And second, my close friend and beloved teacher, Jim Carter, who is here today, retired after 40 years at the Fenn School. So it seemed that the stars aligned for my speaking today.

After I agreed, I needed to figure out what to say. So I thought back to my own graduation those fifty years ago and to our speaker. His name was Dean Rusk and he was president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which meant nothing to me. All I was aware of was that he lived in my town, he knew my father, and I was in the band with his son. And the truth is… I have no idea what he said. All I remember thinking about was the future, not the future in capital letters and bright lights: the what-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life future. Instead I was thinking about the future that was to immediately follow the graduation ceremony: the all-night-parties-with-my-girlfriend-and-our-subsequent-trip-to-Jones-Beach-with-the-top-down future.

Now, I know that you, unlike me back then, are paying rapt attention to my every word, and will long remember what is said here.

But I still had not figured out what I wanted you to remember. So I thought back to my college graduation. The speaker was... Dean Rusk. Yes, the same Dean Rusk. Except now he lived in Washington and he was the Secretary of State. I remember that message very well; he said that there were events happening in a place called Vietnam, half way around the globe, that would forever change our lives. I’m not sure even he realized how right he was, how radically the times they were a changin’.

Now I had a topic for today, and I started thinking about all of the changes that had occurred during my lifetime. I remembered the first telephone in our summer house. It was one of those things that had two separate parts, one to listen and one to talk. If you wanted to make a call, you would pick up the listening thing and see if anyone else was on the line - we had what was called a party line and we had to share it with a dozen other families. There was no dial nor keypad, so if the line was free, you would turn a crank on the side of the wooden phone box that would alert the local operator, Mrs. Adams. She would greet you by name. Then, you would tell her the number you wanted and she would dial it for you.

Now, you just push some buttons on your handheld phone, which has more computing power than the computers used to send the first men to the moon, and you are directly connected to your number. But you are more likely to get a machine than a person. Now, I’m not even sure you use your cell phones to actually talk with anyone.

Just out of curiosity, raise your hand if you text more than you talk on your phones. Raise your hand if you are actually texting someone right now. Now raise your hand if you are texting the person sitting next to you. Ahh, the joys of technology. Instead of actually talking with someone, you have virtual conversations with virtual friends.

Anyway, I quickly realized that if I tried to mention all of the changes that happened during my lifetime, you would never get to any of the parties that await you. So let’s just look at the ten years after my graduation from high school and a few of the extraordinary events that defined my generation. In more or less chronological order:

-we had the first televised presidential debate in history,

-JFK became the first Catholic and youngest person to be elected president.

-the Peace Corps was created

-Freedom Rides to desegregate the south started

-our official involvement the war in Vietnam also began

-James Meredith became the first black person to enroll in the University of Mississippi

-we were brought to the brink of nuclear war when the Cuban missile crisis occurred

-the first diet soda was marketed by Coke, it was called Tab

-the civil rights march on Washington took place and Martin Luther King spoke of his dream

-JFK was assassinated

-the Beatles began the British musical invasion of the US

-LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act into law

-Medicare and Medicaid were established

-the National Voting Rights Act was made law

-and the movie version of “The Sound of Music” premiered

-a woman first ran in the Boston Marathon

-the Supreme Court ruled on Miranda rights

-Star Trek debuted on television

-men’s colleges went coed

-Concord Carlisle joined the METCO program

-the first Super Bowl was played

-Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated

-there were riots in the streets of Chicago at the Democratic National Convention

and in the final year of that decade

-the amazing Mets won the World Series

-thousands of people gathered at a field in a town in upstate New York called Woodstock

And more profoundly,

-a man first walked on the moon

and the first message was sent over the internet. Actually, it was the first half message; the computers crashed halfway through.

All those monumental, and not so monumental, events had a profound effect on the racial, social, generational, and political fabric of the United States. In ten years the country as we knew it was turned upside down and our lives were forever altered. And that was just my generation; every generation has its milestones. What events will define yours?

Despite what we might wish, there is no sure thing in life. The world changes in ways that even the best and the brightest cannot predict. But that does not mean we are always at the mercy of those external events.

How do we adapt to the chutes and ladders of outrageous fortune? In part, that is what these last twelve years of your life have been about. I know at times it seemed like all we cared about were dates or formulas or equations or past participles or chord progressions or vocabulary or composition. But, what we were really doing was teaching you how to understand life, how to understand and communicate with your world. We were teaching you how to think --- analytically, creatively, and insightfully --- and how to express those thoughts clearly and eloquently, through art and music, in writing, and with the spoken word. This has always been and will always be the true goal of education because it produces the plasticity of mind that allows us to meet the unknown challenges of the future.

You have been lucky to have wonderfully talented counselors and teachers and tutors and administrators who recognize this truth; people who understand that the heart of education in any century is a conversation between a teacher and a student. We have tried to give you the knowledge that we learned through the challenges we have experienced so that you can apply that learning to the challenges you will experience.

But one of the greatest things about teaching is that it is not a one-way street, and while we were teaching you what we learned from the past, you were teaching us what to expect from the future.

And that is what this celebration is all about, the past and the future. That is why today has two different names: graduation and commencement. Graduation means that something - your time here, your life as a dependent, your childhood - is over, while commencement means that something else - your independence, your career, the rest of your life - is beginning.

In a way, I suppose, I am talking about memories and dreams. For your parents, these times are mostly memories because you were their dreams. This is why it is so hard for many parents to let go. Every event became the last time it would happen: the last soccer game, the last concert, the last family trip. You get the idea. For your parents, this ceremony is graduation. And, even though your parents are excited about the future possibilities in your life, for them, this is basically an ending, a time to say good-bye.

For you, today contains more of a balance between memories and dreams. The memories are certainly there - memories of family and friends, of childhood and adolescence, of sorrow and joy. Treasure these memories because they give you a foundation on which to build your life. It is also your time to dream because dreams are the blueprints of life. And understand, to dream means to risk and to reach, and if there isn’t some element of uncertainty in your dreaming, you are not reaching far enough.

I believe we live our lives somewhere between memories and dreams. Memories are links with the past, while dreams are bridges to the future. Our job in life is to hold on to our memories and follow our dreams. And, as each succeeding dream becomes a memory, we must find new dreams to sustain us. In the end, life is about this journey from dream to dream. How you make that journey is the hallmark of your character; make your journey with integrity, with courage, and with compassion.

The nature of life’s journey is that there are no road maps. I can’t tell you what the next ten years will bring. As much as historians and psychologists like to recognize patterns, we can’t tell you about the road ahead, where you must slow down for the curves, where you can speed up on the straightaways, or where you will have to change your direction entirely. And we certainly can’t tell you if there is a landslide blocking your progress and about to bring you down. It is the way that you handle the roadblocks life throws at you that will matter. Will you go around them, go over them, go through them, or will they stop you in your tracks? Which of Frost’s two roads will you take? There is no right way, and no one can lead you because it is your journey. But perhaps I can point you in the right general direction.

Those of you who know me well, know that I left out the two most significant events in my live that occurred in the decade after my graduation, the ones that gave stability and purpose to my life; the ones that I could control. In 1965 I married my best friend and in 1968 I came to CCHS. These are the two most important things I ever did. And therein lies life’s meaning: love and work. Whatever else happened outside, there was a center to my life.

What makes life’s journey more rewarding is having this center - having a sense of satisfaction with life, a satisfaction that is found by creating a balance in your life between love and work, and a third important factor, play. The optimal balance is a personal one and will change as your life changes. But love, work, and play will always be the three basic forces in our lives.

Find your balance - find your life.

I wish I could be taking the journey with you, but I am looking back fondly on memories while you are looking ahead to your dreams. If I could, I would do it all again, even if I couldn’t change a thing. Life is a great and glorious adventure. Now it is your turn and you are ready.

Robert Furey- Social Studies Department Chair.