June 1, 2019 written by William Johnston; provided by Hingham High School
Good morning, Hingham High School! Good morning to Mr. Swanson, administrators, teachers, friends and family members, and an especially good morning to the soon to be graduated Hingham High School Class of 2019.
I am truly honored today to have an opportunity to speak on behalf of a group of students this morning, who, for the past twelve years, I have been proud to call my classmates, my teammates, and most importantly: my friends.
For many of us, all we have known for most of our lives have been three things: our families, the town of Hingham, and each other. Many of us took our first breaths of life here, spoke our first words here, took our first steps here, rode our first bike without training wheels here, or made our first real friend here.
Thirteen years ago, our journey together began as we each took our first steps onto a kindergarten bus - whether it was in Hingham or another town - with our parents standing at the front door, nervous, and waving goodbye. Today, after those thirteen years of memories, we finally take our last step off that bus. And our parents are again standing at the front door, nervous, waving goodbye. But this time it’s because we each start a new journey towards our futures and leave behind a whole lifetime within the walls of this town, with each milestone not feeling that long ago.
If you asked anyone here, I think they would tell you that it doesn’t feel that long ago when we traded in our nursery rhyme books for SAT practice books. Traded those multiplication flashcards for Precalculus and calculus textbooks. Traded our middle school insecurities into points of unique personal pride in high school. And, most recently, traded our backyard Slip N Slide for our senior slide in the academic world - which, I’m sure all of us, parents and teachers can agree, is very real. But, whatever it was, whatever we traded in, whatever we did, we did it together - we did it as the class of 2019.
And we put that togetherness on display through our entire journey together. Whether it was inviting someone to sit at our lunch table in elementary school, walking up and saying hello to the kid we had never seen before in middle school, or in high school, when although our friend groups had been formed, not letting that keep us segregated from each other as a whole.
Or just last year, the togetherness that we put on display when we lost our friend and classmate, Andrew Warhaftig. When the easy choice would have been to shut down in reasonable anguish and despair, we chose to come together, and embody the lessons taught to all of us by Andrew: He taught us to enjoy the present moment. He taught us to assume the best in people, to smile and appreciate what you do have even when you have very little, and to love our fellow human beings. We came together even though we knew that the puzzle of our class will forever be missing a piece in Andrew.
That same spirit of togetherness lives on in all of us, bet especially in our classmates going onto serve in our military. Those classmates being: Jared Gervasi, Kyle Bennet, Elise Birkhauser, Reed Schilb, Nolan D’Entremont, Dylan “The Diersch-man” Diersch, and lastly, you may have read about him in the newspaper for being a fantastic basketball player, but I know him to be an even better friend and that is John Lowther.
And to those members of the class going onto serve and to their families, there is no foreign enemy powerful enough, no war brutal enough, no amount of ocean or desert long enough to break the bond we have built together as a class. And no matter how far you find yourselves from Hingham defending our shores, the rest of the class of 2019 will always have your back.
We will have your back like this community, our administrators, our teachers, and our parents have had our backs through our entire time in Hingham.
To our principal Mr. Swanson, our assistant principals Mrs. Henriksen and Mr. Shattuck, and our Superintendent, Dr. Galo, thank you for teaching us what it means to be leaders; for teaching us that no one person is more important than another, and for showing us first hand what a life devoted to service and education looks like. And to Mr. Swanson, thank you for putting out fires both literally and figuratively.
To our teachers, thank you all for dedicating every day to our betterment and our education. For making lessons interesting, not just teaching out of a textbook, but teaching us how to think and how to form our own ideas. Thank you for waking up early to meet with us for extra help in the morning, for your patience with us during the day, and for staying up late at night to grade our papers and tests and writing our all important letters of recommendation. For taking genuine interest and concern in our lives not just in school, but out of school, too. And for making what seemed impossible yesterday, seem possible today.
And to our parents and our families, who have seen us at times when we wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to see us, who have been with us from those first breaths of life, from that first time riding a bike without training wheels, thank you. Thank you for picking us up when we were down, for giving us pride and confidence in ourselves, for all you’ve sacrificed in your own lives to get us to this point, for teaching us what love is, and for being our whole worlds. This is as much your graduation as it is ours.
There is not enough time in the day to thank you all for what you have given us.
Each of those blessings from our parents, our families, our teachers, and our administrators are what allowed us as a class for the past thirteen years despite our individual stories, despite our unique interests and hobbies, despite our different friends or friend groups, or what different sports or activities we participated in, allowed us to put our differences aside, to find our similarities, and to connect as one class.
That is an especially impressive feat when you consider the gaping and growing divide that exists in our country today. It would be reasonable to say that our country has forgotten that all of us share the common end goal of a more perfect union. And that the only place where we truly differ is our belief in how we get there.
When you turn on the news or check the internet, it would appear as though we’re living in two completely separate worlds with very little understanding going on between either of them. Each side is quick to point out the other’s faults. One side may miss the commonalities it shares with the other and instead just focuses on their differences. By focusing on just what is wrong with each other and not what is right, we are absolutely not advancing that shared end goal of a more perfect union.
If we allow divisiveness to overshadow our similarities, allow anger to drive out diplomacy and reason, allow this refusal to hear other opinions to prevent any progress, we would be allowing our country to temporarily unsubscribe itself from its founding creed: E Pluribus Unum: out of many, one.
Fortunately for America, this group of kids sitting next to me is here to bring it back.
Because for the past four years in high school, the past 13 years in the public school system, the past 18 years here in Hingham - whether you were here for all 18 or not - we knew that although we may have been members of many separate groups - some of us interested in basketball or football, some of us interested in drama, band, or chorus, some interested in track or baseball, or some interested in none of these things - that above all, we were members of one body, one group, one class: the class of 2019.
Every person here with me today will remind the country that, yes, we may be very different from our fellow Americans. Yes, we may work different jobs. And yes, we may watch different tv shows or news channels. We may read different books; practice different religions; have different skin colors; live in different states; vote for different candidates, or disagree on key issues.
But all of those take a back seat to our being Americans. Yes, we are all different, but it doesn’t matter, because the beauty of this country is that it will still bridge and still connect us together as one. We all want to sit back on Sunday’s and eat dinner with our families. We all want to come home after a long day at work or school to relax. We all want to feel valued, and feel loved. And we all want to teach our youth the same values of inclusion, kindness, and hard work.
We are all members of one body, members of one team. We all live in one country with one flag and one original creed: E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one. And as a country, we need to live like it, just as the class of 2019 has so gracefully done these past twelve years.
Our differences cannot divide us. Our togetherness cannot be broken. We are standing here today as one. We won’t let fear or anger turn us towards separation. We won’t let anything turn us towards separation on this long road to achieving that more perfect union we all strive for.
And I know we can do it as the Class of 2019. Because since our first days together, when we took that first step onto that school bus, when we had those multiplication flashcards and nursery rhyme books, from our first steps in this town, to in a few minutes, some of our lasts, we took factors that easily could have divided us against each other and made them to be the very fibers that compose the fabric of unity that the class of 2019 has subscribed itself to, and America will again soon subscribe itself to.
For that reason, I know, and everyone in those bleachers will soon know, why this town, this state, this country, and this planet will be more united, more accepting, and more together.
Thank you to my classmates and friends for memories I will never forget. And thank you all for everything you’ve given us these past 18 years.
Thank you very much for your time, everybody.