As Don McLean once said, “there we were all in one place, a generation lost in space. With no time left to start again.” He wrote that song to describe the events of the 1960’s, and yet that line seems so appropriate for today. You see it’s no secret that the class of 2009 is the final class to graduate in this decade. We have been lucky enough to watch this decade grow and unfold, much like we have done through our time in New Paltz schools.
It’s amazing to think that we were only Elementary School students when September 11th happened, and we were just Middle School students when the Iraq war started. In our time from Elementary School to now, our vocabulary has greatly expanded, we have learned new phrases, like dimpled chad, Taliban, green house gases, water boarding, and yes, even wardrobe malfunction.
Our generation is very much like the one Don McLean describes, and yet we are also very different. We haven’t protested like they did in the 1960s. We didn’t storm the Democratic National Convention, or riot on the campus of Columbia University. Some times people confuse this for laziness, but I would have to disagree. You see our youth has been defined by the events of this decade in more ways then we will ever know. Our generation sees what’s wrong in the world and like so many generations before us we don’t like it! The difference is we know we can fit more people on a Facebook group against the war then we could ever fit on the campus of Columbia University.
There are many things we will surely come to miss at New Paltz High School. Pickleball, NPZTV, and Ms. Randolph on the PA system saying, “You know who you are…Detention is in room 101” I just wanted to say, yes Mrs. Randolph I do know who I am, in fact we all know who we are, and a lot of that has to do with the building over there. I certainly found who I want to be in those halls, and I know a lot of people here could say the same.
So I stand here today as someone who never won a section title, I am not the President of my class, I wasn’t a pickle ball champion and I certainly don’t have a GPA of 100. But I am very proud to be a member of the class of 2009. You see guys, we have amazing potential. We are a school that has a swim team with no pool…and somehow we have a State Champion All-American relay swim team. The next few years won’t be easy, but I can’t imagine a better group of people to tackle these challenges. So here we are, “all in one place” probably for the last time. But I do have to disagree with one thing Mr. McLean said, by no means are we a lost generation. Look around you, we are anything but lost, we have so much to offer to our world, and we are finally ready show that, and believe me, no one here needs MTV to make them into anything, you all have the power to do that on your own.
So class of 2009 as you will hear all through today, congratulations, I know each and every one of you will do amazing things in our world, and make us all very proud to say we were a member of the graduating class of 2009.
6/26/09
