High School Commencement Speech

By Joseph McCabe

          Holy Cross High School, a Roman Catholic high school in Flushing, Queens, was one of the most prominent institutes I ever attended. During the beginning of my Junior year, my principal and professor of history, Mr. G, gave us a compelling speech on how important this year was to be for everyone in my class. Not just when it came to classes themselves but the SAT’s as well.
          None of us wanted to hear another speech about how responsibility can get us far in life, so a lot of us chose to ignore him until he admitted something to everyone that caught all of our attention.
          “You only get to live your life once,” he said. “You should never give up on yourselves. You all have something to live for. My son was an achiever, but in his Junior year he chose to take his own life and that was something I could not let go.”
          Hearing those words from a man we all looked up to was shocking. From then on until graduation, our entire student body was beginning to shrink. Many students left our great school over poor grades and selfish attitudes. Those who were let go from Holy Cross never heeded Mr. G’s words.
          By graduation, our whole student body for the class of 2010 was under two hundred students. Mr. G’s words had hit my friends and me pretty hard since it was the tragedy of the story that drew us together in gaining solid grades. If I had the chance to go back when Mr. G had first given that speech, I would have gotten up and thanked him.