Gov. Schweiker, Fr. McClosky, Mr. Pomeroy and members of the administration and faculty, parents and friends, and classmates,
I’ve always been part of a small family, I only have two parents, and a little sister, so when I came to Holy Ghost, I was pretty much on my own: I didn’t have any siblings or friends to help me transition into high school. Holy Ghost was a “great unkown.”
For our Freshman year summer reading, we had to read John Knowle’s “A Separate Peace.” I don’t really understand why we were required to read it, since it made the all boys prep school its based on look like a conservative, unchangeable, tradition obsessed prison, where the kids need to lash out with risky sports. Reading this nervously in my room before I came to Holy Ghost made me think a lot about whether I had made the right decision. I didn’t want to be oppressed by an extremely strict tradition oriented administration. In sophomore year, when Mr. Jordan showed us “The Dead Poet’s Society” in Academic writing, there it was again. Yet another all boys prep school. And of course, another oppressive tradition based administration. I don’t know why Mr. Jordan showed us the movie, or Mister Danilak showed it to us again Junior Year, or why Miss Green senior year… maybe they were hoping we’d all stand up on our desks and chant their name when Mr. Pomeroy walked by, but whatever it was, the movie made me think.
Even though I had six detentions Freshman year…mostly for forgetting to check in after Color Day…I still never felt oppressed. I never quite felt like Gene in a Separate Peace, or Neil in the “Dead Poets Society,” I never tried to escape, I never complained, much, and I certainly never even thought about lashing out with risky sports: I had trouble with the lap we had to run for Intramurals.
But after four years I’ve realized something. Over and over again, we see movies and books that depict prep schools or Catholic schools as these really strict places where the kids have to rise up and beat down authority. Okay, so Holy Ghost and schools like it do stress tradition, a lot. They are strict in many sways: we often joke about how much the administration harps on us for not wearing belts or not cleaning up our lunch table. But what I think we may miss is that this sense of Tradition is not a nuisance made up of rules, regulations, and dress codes that represses our own personalities or prevents us from growing, but that all of these things shape us into a particular type of person, someone who is respectful and mindful of the past while reaching for the future. In fact, this sense of tradition fostered at Holy Ghost is something that I believe really needs to be stressed not only here, at an all boys prep school, but around us in the rest of world too.
As Americans living at the beginning of the 21st century, we are constantly trying to discover ways to innovate. We use cutting edge technology. We read forward thinking books and magazines. We enjoy movies that challenge us to think in new ways. New is cool. New is fresh. New is where its at. In a society where CDs hardly stay on the charts for more than 4 weeks, where we buy whole sets of living room furniture, on average, every 3 years, and where hundreds of thousands of elderly people are neglected and abused every day, “new” is all many of us seem to care about. What we must realize though, is that the ties that really keep us together, that give us a sense of who we are and why our lives have meaning, are old. They are our traditions. They are to us what tracks are to a train: they keep us moving, but in the right direction. And just as Holy Ghost tried to instill in us a sense of that tradition so that we continue it, we must find and bring with us, that sense of tradition in our homes, our workplaces, and when we head off to college.
Now we the class of 2002 of Holy Ghost Prep are part of that tradition. There are people here today from past graduating classes. There are underclassmen here who will graduate in years to come. But This is our spot. This is where we stand. And it’s a good spot. Over the past four years, our class has gone from being a bunch of random kids who didn’t know each other, to a class of brothers who, even though not all of us may always get along, would be willing to spend a Saturday helping any one of us move, or be a shoulder, if not to cry on, at least to punch, or perhaps someday be ushers at each others weddings. We fulfill the qualities that Holy Ghost looks for in class, we are continuing the Holy Ghost Tradition.
Its been a remarkable four years. We came here to the sight of the huge crater that would be the foundation for founders hall, which, allegedly, Mr. Geruson dug himself with a shovel the summer before to save on contractor fees. We were subjected to a series of humiliating initiation rituals, like having to dive face down into fruit, and having to listen to Mr. Chapman talk about the late policy. And then we went to class. Thankfully the dreaded double, 90 minute period, was eliminated by our sophomore year, and we were also the first freshman class to have free studies. We are also the last class that can remember the trip to Hershey, when we all stood side by side for the Basketball team at the state finals, and suddenly we began to understand what it means to say “we are Holy Ghost”. I think that that moment is when most of us first looked around at each other and realized we were part of an amazing group of people.
Over the next three years, we built on our successes. We enjoyed eight formals, ending in the Prom extravaganza down at the Westin. We experienced our class’s triumphs: from our underdog state forensics titles, I had to plug forensics, to the Science “TEAMs” successes, which I didn’t realized until recently, since he really doesn’t talk about it much, Mr. Pomeroy coaches himself. We had quite an experience at the first dance sophomore year when we had almost a thousand people crammed into the gym…and about two thousand outside rioting to get in. We did a lot of work. I estimate given our class size that we wrote about 51,840 pages in papers over four years. We watched history happen. We had a lot of discussions. So much reminds me of my time at Holy Ghost, from restaurants on Street Road, to books in the bookstore, to even the roads we take to get here.
We didn’t go through all this alone. We had you, our parents behind us, and we had our teachers, who were a little like parents too. We had mother figures, like Mrs. Posey who sometimes just gives ya hug to wish ya a good weekend. Or Mrs. Bliss, who all the way back in freshman year kept snakes and ferrets in the classroom. Or Mrs. Flynn who just gets a kick out of geometry. Even Mrs. Courtney who loves her basketball, by the way, how are the Bulls doing in the playoffs? We also had father figures, like Mr. Buettler, yoda, the seer, guided us, he did. And Mr. Ryan, who sometimes can seem just a few monks short of a monastery. Mr. Tomshaw, who would be completely honest with our physics performance, just ask rich. Father Chris who had us jousting with each other in class. Even Mr. Vanderwaag, whose not really old enough to be our father, but who told us all about Eudaimonia, don’t know what that is? Don’t worry, he’ll tell you allllll about it. And we are last graduating class to have had the father of fathers, like the king of kings, Fr. McClosky for all of our time here. Though I’m sure Holy Ghost will go on without father, it will never be the same without “one quick story.” And these are just a few of all the people who helped us along the way, helped form us in the Holy Ghost tradition. They, and the entire faculty of this school will continue to foster each graduating class in the same tradition.
Now, for us, it’s the end. A great philosopher, Mr. Jerry Colopinto, once said that “we’ll just pay the toll on that bridge when we cross it.” Well, we’ve crossed that bridge, and its time to pay the toll. The toll we must pay is to remember, to remember who we are in the Holy Ghost tradition. So now, as we say goodbye to Holy Ghost Prep, as we all head off to college, I know and will always remember, that no longer am I part of a small family. Now I don’t have only two parents and a little sister: I have two parents, one little sister, and 118 brothers. And I will for the rest of my life.