Commencement Address to Class of 2006

By Anthony D’Amato ’06

Welcome families, friends, alumni, faculty and students. I’ve been involved with Blair for as long as I can remember. I used to get babysat up here when I was little. Before I ever even started school, I’d made friends with many faculty kids who I’m fortunate enough to still be close with today. I watched my brother, Nick, work his way through Blair and, at his graduation, give a valedictory speech. So needless to say, it’s a real honor for me to be asked to speak today. For our class, the class of 2006, this past year presented us with a unique set of challenges and circumstances that defined who we’ve become. And because of that, I’d like to talk a little bit about us today.

Over the course of my four years at Blair, I’ve heard a lot of things said about our class. Mr. Hardwick described us as spiky, which he explained means that our class is full of individuals with high levels of talent in a variety of areas. As a class, we’re all over the place, but as individuals, many of us excel at what we do. That seems pretty accurate to me. Think about it—our class is made up of some truly accomplished artists, actors, musicians, writers, runners, wrestlers, target shooters, horseback riders, Latin translators… the list goes on and on. We have national champion wrestlers sitting next to us every day at school meeting. After four years you start to take that for granted, but if you look around at our class for a minute, it really is pretty impressive.

If we’re spiky, though, that means we have both extremes. We can’t have spikes of glory, like this year’s impressive college acceptance rate and matriculation list, without dips, too…shameful, shameful dips. It seems our class has handily shattered all previous records for absences and attendance related punishments this year. We probably ought to work on that for next year since Carm won’t be around at college to wake kids up for classes.

So we’re spiky. I understand that. But, as Mike and Lara pointed out before me, the school says other things about our class that aren’t so flattering. I’ve sat through many a meeting where Mr. Hardwick asks the class council how we plan to unite our grade. They’ve said we’re a very divided group of kids, especially compared to last year’s Class of 2005. If the class of 2006 is spikily talented but divided, then I guess 2005 was just a big gelatinous blob of mediocrity and closeness, and who wants that? I always thought the spikes were a good thing—it meant we were all talented and driven people. But in reality, they’ve said the spikes prevented common interests and kept us from bonding over the past four years.

I never liked the sound of that, though, so I decided I was going to prove the administration wrong. I wanted to find something that we all have in common, something we all share, something that makes us a class and not just a group of kids that go to school together.
The first thing I thought of is background. People that come from similar backgrounds form close bonds, so maybe we all come from similar families.

I looked into it, though, and it didn’t seem like that would really work. Some of our parents are doctors, and some of our parents are lawyers, and some of our parents host Lou Dobbs’ Moneyline on CNN. So family’s out. Scratch that.

The next thing I thought of is where we come from. I live in Blairstown. Some of my friends live in Blairstown. It was starting to look pretty promising. However, a quick look in the geographical listings at the back of the face book blew this one out of the water. Now, I’ve never been to Hong Kong, but I know it’s really far away, and I’m willing to bet it’s pretty different from Blairstown. Yet the international students in our grade are just as important as anyone to our strength as a class, so hometowns are out. Scratch that one, too.

I was sure I had it when I started to think about our futures. If we’re all talented, driven kids like they say, then we all have a desire to achieve in common. We all want to get out into the world and make something of ourselves. That’s it! But then I remembered Adam Garcia…his speech for public speaking class…his lifetime goal of marrying a rich girl so he doesn’t have to get a job. I admit he has a point there, but it ruins mine. So scratch that. Ambition’s out.

I was all ready to give up on this whole speech when I was sitting quietly at the dinner table in Sharpe House with the Hardwicks for an advisee get together. Mrs. Hardwick mentioned the idea of faculty helping students and students helping faculty through difficult times. That’s when it hit me. Help. Help is what we have in common. There isn’t a single person in our class that would be sitting here today without the help of others, and there isn’t a single person in our class that hasn’t helped someone else out when they needed it, especially this year.

Go all the way back to the beginning of your Blair careers. None of us would be here if our parents hadn’t helped out. They took on the financial sacrifice of sending us to a great school full of great people. So to every parent out there right now, on behalf of the graduating class, I say thank you.

In many cases, our families couldn’t afford Blair, but that’s where financial aid and scholarships came in. A lot of the kids that make this class so special wouldn’t be here without financial assistance from some very generous people, so to every alumnus that’s ever donated to the school, especially the scholarship providers like Mr. Bogle and the Kennedy Family who made my time at Blair possible, on behalf of the graduating class, I say thank you. To the graduating class, I’d like to ask that we look to these alumni as role models. Some of us will someday soon be in the position to help future generations of Blair students in the way that they have, and when that day comes, don’t forget the help you got along the way.

Without a faculty body willing to invite students into their apartments for extra help when they need it, drive them to New York on a weekend for a baseball game, concert, or an art show, or just to sit around the dorm and talk about life, Blair wouldn’t have the close-knit community it’s so proud of. The faculty here has always been, to me, what made this place so special. There are no boundaries at Blair between teachers and friends or coaches and mentors. The teachers are parents away from home for many boarding students, and if raising one child didn’t seem hard enough, try being responsible for a dorm full of them. This isn’t always the easiest place to thrive, but the faculty’s help made it all possible. So to all of the faculty members here today, on behalf of the graduating class, I say thank you.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, everyone here faced some very difficult times this year. Losing someone is never easy, so needless to say, in retrospect, the loss of a student, a teacher, an alumnus and faculty family members all in one year was a heavy load for all of us to bear. But we did bear it, because we had help. As Mrs. Hardwick pointed out, students helped faculty, and faculty helped students. We stuck together, every one of us. We were there for the Jamiesons and the Sochas, and we were there for each other when we needed it. It seems kind of mixed up that it takes tragedies to bring out the best in people, but that’s what happened. That’s when we found out who we are as a class. We’re a class that sticks together through the hard times. We’re a class that stands strong when we need to. We’re a class that helps each other.

Kurt was one of the strongest members of this class. As a prefect, he was a mentor to the younger students just beginning their four years at Blair. As an athlete he was a captain and a leader, not necessarily because he was the fastest kid or the strongest player, but because his teammates looked up to him. I began playing baseball with Kurt back in elementary school, and even then, he brought an enthusiasm and desire to the playing field every day that was simply infectious. As a friend, it seems tough to find the words to describe him. Ask anyone he was close to in this class; he could cheer you up, make you laugh, turn your whole day around just with that grin of his.

When Kurt was taken away from us, it would have been easy for our grade to fall apart. We didn’t though. If anything, we’re closer now than ever before. The loss of Kurt left behind a big hole that no one person could fill. So instead, like a true class, everybody stepped up to the plate and shouldered a little bit more of the load of holding this place together. Everybody found the extra strength they needed in the memories of Kurt. Those who didn’t know him got to know what a great person they had missed through the memories of others. There’s strength in that.

It was the same way with Mr. Jamieson. Sadly, few students ever got to meet him, but it was after his passing we found out what a fantastic teacher we missed out on having.

That’s the way it went for our class this year. We had to learn a lot of things the hard way, and like its name would suggest, the hard way isn’t easy. That’s why we needed help. That’s why we got help. So to Kurt Socha, Mr. Jamieson, Ray Mendoza, an alumnus killed in Iraq this past year, and Mrs. Burkart’s husband who was also killed serving his country in Iraq earlier this month, on behalf of the graduating class, I’d like to say thank you. Thank you for helping while you were with us, and thank you for the help you’ll continue to provide even though you’ve left us. Thank you for the lessons you taught us, the good times you provided us, the memories we can hold on to, and your strength which we’ll always carry with us.

There’s still one more group of people to thank, and that’s you, the Class of 2006. We’ve had our ups and downs throughout our years at Blair, but here we are today, about to leave it all behind. I urge you, though, not to leave it behind. Take everything you’ve learned here with you, and I don’t just mean the academics and the things you learned in the classroom. Those are important, but I think the lessons we’ve learned here outside of the classroom are probably more important. Help someone when they need it, and don’t be afraid to look for help when you need it. Don’t wait for tragedy to show people the best in you, put your best self forward always, because you never know who you’ll help along the way. Thank you.

Posted 6/1/06

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