Hudson High School Virtual
Graduation Ceremony
May 17, 2020
Good afternoon to the Hudson High School Class of 2020. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Hudson Community School District I would like to welcome you, along with your parents, grandparents and all our community members who are joining us this afternoon for this virtual graduation day ceremony. It is my sincere hope that our celebration this afternoon permits you to set aside the worries and stress we are all experiencing in society right now; and enjoy this day with our graduates. Regardless of how we honor these students, this is an exciting day for the Class of 2020, and although we are apart this annual rite of passage is a milestone worthy of recognition.
Each school year has a normal ebb and flow with a predictable pattern of rhythms that carries us from beginning to end. This natural cycle provides us with comfort and predictability. Our fall is filled with energy as we return from summer with the joy of seeing our friends, reconnecting with teachers, and learning new skills. Wintertime comes and we enjoy the holidays with our families and settle in for deep and intense learning. Spring gives way to new life and the excitement begins to grow once again when we look forward to end of year celebrations, vacations, the change in schedule that comes with longer days, and for you, the Class of 2020: Graduation Day. Needless to say, the way our school year has unfolded, and in fact will end does not conform to the comfort and predictability to which we are accustomed.
But [it] began with much promise and an opening day convocation with our faculty and staff. During this annual welcome back event, we have an opportunity to share and shape a vision of the journey we are about to embark on. With agenda set and bold goals identified we all look forward with the buzz and excitement of a new [and final] beginning with each of you. A theme that encapsulates and incorporates this agenda; and throughout the course of the school year, becomes our focus on this important work. Hopefully we are able to bring it to culmination on graduation day, the biggest and most important event in our academic calendar. The fact is, if one is really paying attention, they can usually see a reemergence of that theme in my final words of advice to you, the graduating class. You have to pay attention though because I am deliberately subtle.
However this year, I am taking a much more overt approach and begin by first asking you to consider examining the three Latin words that were included in my email signature block this year. Those words translate roughly to character, scholarship, and perseverance. Those words epitomize how I envisioned our focus for the school year. Those words were how I encouraged our faculty and staff to model their interactions with you. Those words are how we take a disciplined approach to academia. And those words, I hope demonstrate how we face adversity. How fitting it is then, that I encourage you to persevere as we find ourselves here, during this the moment of time, today facing such great adversity in our nation.
There is no doubt these last two months have been difficult for all of us, but they have been especially disappointing for each of you. Celebrations of this day and of your accomplishments were to have occurred together, as a community and as classmates. This is not at all how you had hoped high school would end. Track meets, concerts, awards assemblies: indeed a whole litany of finales have been cancelled. All of these events, those of the mundane and those designed to capture the pinnacle of your time as Hudson Pirate have been taken away. This leaves us with a sense of sadness and loss. We all wish it could be different. But the fact of the matter is this: none of us, your parents, teachers, family members, relatives, or friends outside of the Class of 2020 knows exactly how you feel. That’s because our experience was different. We didn’t have to endure the thought of missing our final moments of high school or having our high school graduation cancelled in favor of a virtual ceremony. Not only was that unheard of, it would have been technologically impossible. This experience will shape you and who you ultimately become.
This moment in time is of historic consequence. Think about that for a moment. Never before in any living person’s memory have we faced an obstacle that required us to take such drastic measures in order to keep one another safe—and done so on a global scale. In that opening day convocation with faculty that now seems so long ago I could not have dreamt in my wildest imagination this day for you.
The memories you have of this moment in your lives are unlikely to fade with the passage of time. You will no doubt recall with vivid detail where you were and what you were doing when key moments of this crisis unfolded. Perhaps it will be the day when you learned school would be closed for the remainder of the school year. For others it may be the moment you found out our athletic seasons were cancelled. I can assure you that decades from now your heirs will want to hear about these hard days. And you will want to share these memories with your children and grandchildren about the year you graduated from high school—and the whole world came to a stop.
I would further suggest that each generation has to come to grips with major societal upheavals that tests the strength of their resolve. Moments that require them to stand up for themselves, for their community, for their country; and perhaps for humanity. For my grandparents it was World War II. For those of my parents’ generation it was Vietnam. For me it was living through the horror of September 11, 2001. For you that time is now. In each instance, that generation rose to face an adversary that was foreign to the generation that preceded them. It required a commitment to persevere. An understanding that we can and will succeed through hard work, grit, and determination. A view toward the future and the belief that the difficulties now in front of us soon will pass. The understanding, and the gravity that comes with it; that our predecessors were counting on us. To the Class of 2020: this is the moment that will test you. I have watched you grow up and have no doubt that you are up to the task.
So today we bookend your career as a Pirate and proudly announce you as a graduate of Hudson High School. Please don’t let these last two months define your high school experience. Instead, cherish the memories that you have made. And remember that while this is a moment in your lives, it is not the moment. Those are yet to come and they will certainly bring you great joy and excitement.
Congratulations.
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