Wednesday, Jun. 16, 2010

A fun-filled graduation at Chowchilla High School

Beach balls, silly string and a lot of laughter describes the graduates at Chowchilla Union High School's 90th Commencement held on Friday evening, June 4.

Even though the beach balls and silly string flew through the air during graduation, the graduates honored the speakers by giving them their undivided attention and refraining from the extra activities during their speeches.

After the Class of 2010 graduates were seated, graduate Karen Romo sang the National Anthem and the flag salute was led by graduate Dustin Calley.

CUHS Principal Fred Cogan approached the podium and stated, "Let me assure you this: tonight's bookmark moment is a focus on 40 years of your life not four."

Cogan congratulated the class and continued, "Welcome to the show. This is a show called life. This is your final frontier. Of which there is no perfect path, but an incredible journey for each of you; nothing clear cut, but always some shade of gray; no promises of success but plenty of promise for bright futures. That's the reality of life."

Cogan ask the students what was next in their life. He asked students to stand if they were going directly into the workforce. Less than 20 students stood. Close to 10 students stood when ask if they would be joining any branch of the United States Armed Forces. The remainder of the students stood when Cogan ask if they would be off to more schooling. Cogan stated, "Regardless of your path, Your journey begins here tonight."

Cogan continued, "Have you ever considered what your want your life to look like? Have you ever given thought to what will your life look like when you get to the end? In everything you have learned since kindergarten, there are three culminating fundaments - you know the basics, the building blocks, and the capstones that create the chances for success in life. Friends be careful: We tend to stray from fundamentals because they are boring, but reality is the right fundamentals in life breed success. Without fundamentals we get lazy, we lose our way, we miss opportunity for success, and we fast track to moments of failure."

"I first learned of three of life's basic fundamentals almost 20 years ago from Lou Holtz, former coach of the University of Notre Dame football team. These three fundaments are timeless-are boundless- and are so simple there is no possible way you can forget them. In paraphrasing Coach Holtz I would like to share these with you now:

The first fundamental is TRUST. In life, every relationship worth having is built on the premise of trust. Any two people who get together for any relationship always ask the inherent question: Can I trust you? Do you mean what you say? Do you back up what you say? Will you do what's right by me? Can I count on you? It doesn't matter the relationship- Husband to wife, wife to husband; Parent to child, child to parent; coach to athlete, athlete to coach. Whenever the relationship is put to the test the question gets answered can I trust you? Your goal should be to establish trust.

The second fundamental is COMMITMENT. Do you want to be good? In whatever you do, are you doing the best job you can? Are you committed to your own excellence? How willing are you to accept just being mediocre; just okay; not very motivated for yourself, let alone those around you? In your life, in anything you do, are you doing the best job you are capable of doing? You can not be a good mother, a good father, a good employers, or a good employee unless you are committed to excellence. Here is a key self-check about your commitment: When you lay your head down on the pillow at night tired, worn out, and exhausted you and you alone will know if you are doing the best you can. If you are doing the best you can than it answers the question that you're committed to excellence-and its only a matter of time before you will be successful.

The third is CARING. We all ask each other consciously or sub-consciously Do you care about me? People want to know - do you really care? Not as an employee, or a student, or an athlete because I can work, learn, or throw or catch but do you care about me as a person? The caring person is someone who uses the age-old equation of having two ears and one mouth because they listen twice as much as they speak.