The Au Gres-Sims School District

Seniors, one of the things you do when you hit momentous occasions in your life is reflect. Graduation is a perfect opportunity to do just that, and you now stand at the crossroads of what you have known and the uncertainty and excitement of what lies ahead. Please bear with me for a moment while I share a reflection of my own.

Tonight marks the 22nd high school graduation of my career. In over two decades of work in education, spanning two states and five different school districts I’ve seen a lot of seniors walk across the stage. Add to that four of my own graduations as a student and countless others for preschool and kindergarten, and you could say that I’m familiar with this process. The faces change each year, but not much else in this time-honored tradition. But this year is different, this graduation has an element of novelty for me. This year I am speaking to you not only as the superintendent of schools but as one of the faces in the crowd.

Eighteen years ago I missed the only graduation ceremony of my career when I became a dad for the first time, to a beautiful baby girl literally born as the tassels were being turned by the graduates of my school in Georgia. I speak to you tonight as an incredibly proud parent who has had the privilege of watching you all develop alongside my own child into amazing young men and women.

Eighteen years have flown by. As a parent you're always told to enjoy the chaos because it will all be gone in a flash and you’ll miss it. Between the packed calendars, band concerts, long drives to away events, fundraisers, and birthday parties, it is hard to absorb that warning. But then you wake up one morning and your little girl or boy has magically morphed into an adult, ready to challenge and change the world.

Graduates, tonight we are here to celebrate you, but tonight is but a moment in time, one that has been building from the day you were born. For the people assembled here tonight we don’t just see a determined and eager group of seniors ready to get out of here and celebrate. We look at you and we see every version of you, every stage of development, every success and every failure. We see you goofing around with the dog and working on your jump shot; shaving for the first time and honing your soccer skills; we even see that smile of elation that beams without bounds, unable to be contained, that melted our hearts then, and continues to do so to this day.

We see the stepping stones of your life even as we eagerly anticipate the person you will become next. Time has only sped up and now you’re all grown up. You have plans of your own to go off to college, or trade school, or the military, or maybe even directly into the workforce. You have your own list of goals and dreams and both the freedom and responsibility of directing your own lives.

My message to you tonight is the same shared by senior Marnie Barrett, to “enjoy every moment because it goes by fast,” and I have three methods for you to employ.

First, Don’t wait! Get started now. Don’t waste your time waiting for the right moment. “Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip? If that sounds familiar, those are lyrics from Lose Yourself by Eminem. This message, however, isn’t new and is echoed as far back as ancient Greece, where Seneca stated, “Let us produce some bold act of our own - and join the ranks of the most emulated,” to which I add, don’t wait to be inspired, lead boldly, and be inspirational to others!

Second, Be ruthless to the things that don’t matter, learn to say no to the habits that rob you of your most precious commodity. Modern day philosopher Ryan Holiday declared, “Time is our most irreplaceable asset - we cannot buy more of it. We can only strive to waste as little as possible.”

You have 1,440 minutes in each day, that’s 168 hours in a week. At least one of you in the crowd is 6,582 days old and in this country, on average, you get just over 78 years. That means that you have already lived 25% of your life, do you really want to waste any of those minutes, hours, days or years on things that don’t really matter?!?

Third, You don’t have to stay on top of everything. It is okay to not be outraged by every scandal, prevailing story, social media frenzy, and potential crisis. To paraphrase Booker T. Washington, “The number of people and things who stand ready to consume one’s time for no purpose is almost endless,” and this a problem now more than ever.

Every graduation class has a personality and this class has always struck me as kind of goofy. You are quite polar in your actions; at once extremely focused and driven, and then immediately afterward fun-loving and chill. It’s probably fitting that when I asked you how you’d describe your class, the overwhelming descriptor used was unserious. Whether you were putting your toes in a teammate’s mouth after a basketball game (Adelaide), swapping ID numbers for the yearbook pictures (Charlie and Brennan), or Rick-rolling through video performances (Isaiah), this class didn’t take themselves too seriously.

That ability to enjoy the moment will serve you well, as long as you balance it with the focus and determination that we have also seen from you. Experience your lives, by taking full advantage of your limited time, pushing away your distractions, and enjoying each success and failure, because life goes by way too fast when you are only focused on finish lines. “Life’s a journey, not a destination, and you just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings.” Yes, that was another song …Aerosmith’s Amazing.

Better yet, heed the words of classmate Tobyn Slater, “Embrace continuous growth, be uncompromisingly authentic, and build a foundation that empowers others to outpace your own accomplishments.” Lose Yourself in the moment and start working to build that Amazing life immediately.

Seniors, I commend and congratulate you on what you have accomplished in earning your diploma from Au Gres-Sims. When you leave here, as AGS alumni I hope you carry the lessons that you have learned in our classrooms and halls and that I have shared with you tonight. I hope you go out into the world with a focused mindset, ready to take full advantage of every minute available to you. I hope you drive to keep learning and growing and becoming the person you were meant to be. And, don’t wait, get started right away.

On behalf of the Board of Education, the AGS staff, and this entire community, congratulations to the Class of 2026. We are incredibly proud of you, we believe in you, and we cannot wait to see what you do next. On behalf of all the parents and family members here tonight, raising you has been the honor of our lives and worth every minute of effort.