MJHS Valedictory Address 2009
Garrison Turner

Good evening. Tonight we have gathered here to celebrate the graduation of the class of 2009. In doing so, let us remember those members of our class who could not be with us.  Among them is Graden Gaines, a young man who, in the words of our classmate Laura Long," showed that courage, faith in God, and a strong foundational love for and from your family are genuine objects of value, and that things of material worth and virtues for success, should not matter”.  Tonight, let us celebrate both his memory and our future. 

As graduates, being here tonight means different things to each of us. For some of us it has been a forgone conclusion; the first of many steps on a path to a particular career or profession. For others, arriving here has been neither simple nor certain; and tonight is as much a victory as it is a celebration. But for all of us, tonight is a turning point.

As friends and family, tonight represents the end result of countless sacrifices, expressed in early morning commutes and light night study sessions; trips to Kroger for a poster board and a careful balance of kinds words of encouragement and enforced discipline, all aimed at providing a brighter future.
And our future is indeed bright. Tonight we celebrate a class of distinguished athletes, artists, musicians, innovators, poets and wage earners. But these distinctions are not what bring us here tonight. Tonight we honor those who have distinguished themselves through that most utilitarian of human institutions: education. There is a beautiful quote from the Baha’i writings concerning education. It tells us to, “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit there from”.

These past four years have been practice in mining our hidden gems. Some of us have discovered talents for math and science; others art and music; and even some business and entrepreneurship. And though tonight these gems may not yet shine with their brightest luster, they still that give us the capacity to serve.  We are a class that has earned hundreds of hours of college credit, given thousands of hours as volunteers, and garnered millions of dollars in scholarships; but our greatness lies beyond these numbers. It lies in the magnitude of service we can give to mankind. Now, it is important to understand that service is more than a condition of probation or something with which to improve a resume. Service is a lifestyle, and at its highest, it can be both our passion and our profession. 

Tomorrow we walk into a world free from the structure of the past four years, a world infinite possibilities, where the son of an immigrant can rise to the highest office in the land; where parents’ age old that their children will live better lives than their own can still be realized; a world where we can shape our own destinies. They say, ‘the sky is the limit’, but we put a man on the moon 40 years ago. Perhaps it would be better to say that the world we are entering is limitless.
But it is also a world in need of servants; one where multitudes hunger for the bread of life, where passion too often gives way to apathy, and where for many, peace is still a dream deferred.

Last fall I was taking a shuttle to LAX with some students after a college visit.  We were discussing our travel experience. One girl had done service work in India and she was commenting on the poverty she had seen in many of that county’s parts. Another passenger interjected. He happened to be an Indian man doing work in the States, and he said something very interesting. He said that India has three times as many people as the United States, and the United States is three times as large as India. So at birth, a child born in the U.S. is already nine times wealthier than a child born in India.  Mt. Juliet, tomorrow we walk into a world of such disparities. As a class that has weathered the transition into a new building, faced the prospect of losing its sports funding, and financed hundreds of college tuitions despite the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, we can too take on the challenge of using our education to build a better world. And if we recognize that we are all members of the same human family, that the community to which we belong is both local and global, and if we can balance our bear pride with a little bit of humility, then we will find that the avenues of service to mankind are themselves also limitless.

Class of 2009, forward ever be our watchword, because our best days do indeed lie ahead. If these past four years have planted the seeds and kindled the flames of passion for a field of endeavor, then go on to be fruitful trees and shining stars. And if the spark of interest has yet to ignite your zeal, then endeavor to find it and use it illumine the world, because this life is a means and not an end.  Mohandas Ghandi once said, “be the change you hope to see in the world.” Mt. Juliet, tonight we celebrate a graduation. Tomorrow let us be that change.