This afternoon, before honors are conferred on those assembled here today, I wish to express my appreciation to your parents.

     Thank you for your support and for gracing our classrooms with some very interesting and entertaining personalities. Your children are respectful and caring human beings, open with their feelings. Nice going, Mom and Dad!

     You graduates deserve to be celebrated here today and I am honored to be a part of this celebration. Many of you know how I've wrestled with the preparation of this speech, the upshot is that it's hard to see you go.

     Four years ago, I stood here giving a farewell to the class of 93, very dear to my heart, and I swore I'd never give another graduation speech.

     So there must be something about you that swayed me to be here today. I spoke to many faculty members about you guys and the comments seem to be consistent.

     Truth is, you people have been a lot of fun! You have great social skills, great inter-personal skills, and I've enjoyed the compassion in your eyes.

     Interest and effort, play and work, just do not seem separate when I look back on classes with you.

     For those in my classes these last two years, I bet you have turned into the best bird nerds ever! That part has been especially impressive; you were so turned-on about seeing in real life the concepts we pursued in class. Thanks, for your excitement!

     Last week, when you finished your last final, turned in your last paper, and returned your books, some of you were FINALLY glad to be through with school.

     Of course, you are done with high school and that is good news. The other good news is that you are NOT really through with school. Whether you intend to get a job, go on to vocational school, attend college, join a business, take a year off, become a professional comedian -- no matter what your plans are, education is just beginning for you.

     You know how to find and use knowledge and apply what you've learned. You've even become connected to the rest of the world via the internet, the information super-highway, the more than 200 TV channels, the hundreds of specialized magazines on the market--- so much!

     The world is changing rapidly with information doubling every 2 years----changing so quickly that none of you can afford to stand still.

     We have become a country of lifelong learners who continue to seek training and take classes. It is said that most of you will experience 8 career changes in your lifetimes. You can see the importance of developing new skills and learning new information.

     Along with a new diploma to hang on the wall, many members of your class will be entering the best job market in memory, especially for those who will one day have degrees in computer fields and electrical engineering.

     Business majors are also in demand, in part because companies that laid off members of your parents' generation throughout the early 90's are furiously hiring. So THINK about your future--it is not going to HAPPEN to you. Your future is something you will help CREATE. You can alter your life by altering the attitude of your mind.

     You must follow your own paths, of course, but it is most important that those who are endowed with special gifts have an opportunity to cultivate them. I urge you to take pride in your past at Rolling Meadows High School, and to take interest in your future. Find a way to continue to learn and grow, even when the circumstances are not ideal.

     It's been a year of learning about some of life's lessons for many of you. I think we have all been reminded to make our relationships count--for you never know when they may abruptly end. You learned that you really are strong and you really can endure. You were there for each other.

     I'm hopeful you will mature into terrific members of our community.

     Today you wrap up your memories in tissue paper and walk away forever, only to revisit those experiences later as very different, because YOU won't be the same.

     Today is both an END and a BEGINNING. Today will be filled with smiles, diplomas, speeches, and maybe tears. Oh yes, tears, for sure. You'll be missed. Some people come into our lives and quickly leave. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our heart and we are never, ever the same.

     Be confident...be competent...be kind...and continue to show the love and sense of humor by which we will remember you.

     Good luck to all of you, and have a fulfilling life!

Doc =)