5 minute read
OPENING REMARKS
KIT OPENING REMARKS
Upper School Director
Good afternoon and welcome to Roeper’s Commencement Exercises for the Class of 2022!
I am both excited and relieved to finally be at this moment! Let’s hope that Mother Nature will continue to provide us with grace
I am delighted to see everyone here at this beautiful venue to celebrate our graduates today I especially want to recognize our families here with us — thank you for sharing your kids with Roeper
Today we will hear incredibly thoughtful speeches on behalf of the members of the graduating class that faithfully illustrate our commitment to our students and celebrate the strong and enduring relationships that come to be at our school This is my fourteenth Roeper Commencement, and it has never disappointed
Before we launch into the rest of the program, I have one task for everyone here to consider Many of you know that in my former career, just before coming to Roeper, I was an archaeologist I spent an inordinate amount of time — really, an inappropriate amount of time — waxing philosophical about objects and the meaning of artifacts Why do things matter to us? What compels us to hold onto objects for sentimental reasons, even if it’s not really valuable stuff? As an academic, it could be frowned upon to draw inspiration from popular television, but I recall watching the American science fiction show Warehouse 13 and discovering exactly that In this series, secret government agents aim to protect the public from objects enchanted by cultural and mythological personalities of the past — Lewis Carroll’s mirror, Alessandro Volta’s lab coat, the wings of Daedalus, Ivan Pavlov’s bell One of the characters responsible for overseeing the warehouse of these artifacts reveals in an episode that objects become enchanted everyday by ordinary people The character further adds that “the creation of an artifact is simply the meeting of an object, a person, and a moment ” Different people will have different experiences with artifacts, and this conceptual trifecta of object, person, and moment has stuck with me through the years I’ve been thinking a lot about artifacts again, as I’ve been going through lots of family documents and memorabilia recently I’ve come to realize that my mother kept everything from my childhood and my brother’s too Everything Every picture I brought home, every skating ribbon or medal I won, every postcard from every place we ever visited To prove it, I brought some of those artifacts with me today, so you can see for yourself …
• This is my 3rd grade report card from 1982
I was in Mrs Cowan’s class I was described as a good classroom citizen, and my strongest subject was art
• This is a 1987 original signed copy of my instrument rental agreement with the school district for my viola, in which I had to affirm that I would
“constantly endeavor to improve my ability by studying diligently ” I’m not sure I held up my end of the agreement as much as I should have
• Here are the results of my vocational testing in 9th grade to see what careers I was best suited for According to this, I should’ve gone into marketing Least compatible career? Manual work, which is a little ironic because I was an archaeologist, and all I did in the field was manual work
It is a weird feeling to come across the documents almost 40 years after the fact Particularly the vocational testing — people change over the course of their lives In 9th grade, I thought I’d be going into medicine Archaeology was nowhere near my radar, and teaching was something I didn’t really imagine either, never mind being a high school principal — no one dreams about becoming a high school principal when they’re in high school, I’m pretty sure about that And as for the viola … well, music has never been a strength of mine, despite how much joy it brings me
These documents plus me plus the moment of looking at them decades beyond their creation has
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What do people hold onto these days, what are those tangible things that get enchanted by our experiences with them? An object, a person, a moment — what artifacts will be given life today? Listen for the notes that signal how meaningful a Roeper education truly is
brought a sense of wonder and a little confusion — were they really predictive of who I truly came to be? But then I realized that my encounter with these family mementos was just another phase of enchantment; originally, they were objects that were meaningful to my mother She held onto these items out of love and a bit of pride — her encounters, her moments, with these documents were a different kind of attachment from what I find myself experiencing today
This perspective helped emphasize for me how much parents invest in their kids and how much these sentimental objects signify milestones and highlights throughout their youth This got me thinking about how objects, people, and moments are entangled for this generation, especially since so much of the documentation of one’s childhood and youth is digital — very visual but without the effect of holding and feeling the object itself
What do people hold onto these days, what are those tangible things that get enchanted by our experiences with them? So as we head into our Commencement Exercises, I’d like everyone here — parents, grandparents, extended family, siblings, graduates, peers, faculty, coaches, mentors, alums, and friends — to think about which object will be tied to this moment, and this afternoon that captures the essence of this event Be intentional about recognizing that artifact today, hold onto it for as long as you can, pass it down to generations to come, for our descendants will have their own encounters and meaning-making with them someday An object, a person, a moment — what artifacts will be given life today?
Without further ado, let’s continue with the program Listen for the notes that signal how meaningful a Roeper education truly is Tune into the leitmotifs that each of our students have taken on during their tenure at our school But most of all, settle in and enjoy the splendor of this celebration
Thank you! F
