Staff Board of Trustees
During my final weeks at Heights, I have been struggling to remember my experience there in a nostalgic, glory days kind of way. I have racked my brain for the golden high school memories that every graduate seems to have. Between classes, I would walk through the halls, taking in the sounds and faces around me, and trying to imagine them as the backdrop of the best four years of my life. I failed miserably. It took a lot of thumbing through yearbooks and making small talk with strangers to bring me to the realization that I would not find what I was looking for, and even more for me to realize that I didn't really want to find it. I love Heights for not being the conventional American high school, because it is instead a microcosm of our world, and it will be remembered for its most crucial component: reality. I won't pretend that I know everyone on this stage, nor will I pretend that our time as classmates has been perfect. There has been conflict, red tape, standardized testing, and bad press, but there has also been growth and achievement, and after four years of coexisting in the same building, learning in the same classrooms, and suffering the same heating and ventilation inadequacies, we have achieved a common success. In a few hours, all of us will leave this building high school graduates, a feat which speaks not only to our personal strengths, but of the competencies of Cleveland Heights High School as well.
Since we've entered high school, a lot has happened. Lockers have gotten jammed, and friends have been made. We've listened to announcements and sat through advisories, enjoyed snow days and fire drills. We took Skills for Living and swim gym, and we watched as our school became three schools, and then five, until we, as a class, lost count. Sometimes we studied, and sometimes we FAed. We witnessed the rise and fall of the tardy room. We've lost textbooks and we've lost football games. Some of us have lost loved ones. We've created music, art, and controversy, and now, we're about to graduate from high school. These have been the triumphs and the tragedies of our lives.
In that same time period, five hundred fifteen million babies have been born, and two hundred thirty one million people have died. Half of the world's population lives on less than two dollars a day. A war has begun. As high school graduates, as adults, and as humans, it is our responsibility to be conscious of our world and its people, and to hold as much concern for them as we do for ourselves.
After the ceremony tonight, we will rush off the stage into the open arms of the rest of our lives. For some of us that means work, for others it means college, and for all of us, it means independence. It is my sincerest hope that with this new life comes also an acute awareness of the lives of others, and of the states of the communities, nations, and world in which we will live. I want for everyone here to know the profound feeling of making a positive change in the life of another. My best friend has always said that her life's ambition is to save the world. Growing up, my desire to teach always paled in comparison, and I questioned the value of my aspirations. Now, I understand that in essence, we had the same goal: to improve the quality of life for others. Not all of us can discover a cure for AIDS, but that does not mean that each of our lives cannot be worthwhile. Edmund Burke once said, "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." I challenge everyone here to avoid that mistake, and to recognize and take advantage of every opportunity your life presents you to help another, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
As I was searching for cliches in my high school experience, I found that my biggest regrets lay not in the Judy Blume books that I won't be able to write, but in the things I thought to do but never did. I suspect that I am not the only one who feels this way, and so I leave you with this: enjoy tonight. Enjoy the rest of your lives. Do the things that move you, say what is on your mind, and work for a cause that is close to your heart. Remember what you learned in high school, but don't glorify it. You should learn just as much with every day. It was Mahatma Ghandi who said, "My life is my message." Tonight, walk across the stage, accept your diploma, and hug your family. Tomorrow, go out into the world and make your life your message.
--Jessie Borkan
