{"id":457,"date":"2013-05-28T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/?p=457"},"modified":"2013-05-28T16:48:13","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T20:48:13","slug":"baccalaureate-speech-by-robert-w-hill-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/2013\/05\/28\/baccalaureate-speech-by-robert-w-hill-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Baccalaureate Speech by Robert W. Hill III"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: The following Baccalaureate remarks were presented by Head of School Robert W. Hill III on May 25, 2013 in Stephens Chapel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Good evening seniors, parents, colleagues and welcome to our Baccalaureate Ceremony for the Class of 2013. I wanted to share a few remarks before we begin this traditional ceremony which dates from Medieval times signifying the attainment of learning and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Preparing for this weekend, I face an annual recognition which all speakers at this time of year realize\u2014if they are honest. It\u2019s a dilemma which comes from trying to think of something interesting or, even harder, something memorable to say to seniors who are about to graduate and who have had their fill of advice, nostalgia, and predictions. It\u2019s times like this that I wish I could go to Mrs. Sawyer\u2019s writing center, or better yet, just ask her to come redeliver the message to you guys from a couple of weeks ago: Remember that lesson? \u201cBe kinder than necessary and work with love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Sawyer was so affirming, so un-ironic, so sincere, so positive in her speech \u2026that this evening I thought I would go negative\u2014 There\u2019s a fancy term that English and Latin teachers and AP English students know called \u201clitotes\u201d which means affirming something by negating its opposite. Saying \u201cNot bad at all\u201d is an example. And more loosely an example from the principal in Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off: “Are you also aware, Mrs. Bueller, that Ferris does not have what we consider to be an exemplary attendance record?” I found that quote In About.Com, where Principal Rooney\u2019s criticism of Ferris\u2019s attendance record beats out Abigail Adams, Fredrick Douglas, and Ronald Regan in order of examples. I\u2019m not sure what that says.<\/p>\n

So in getting ready for this evening I\u2019ve been looking for erudite quotes where ever they appear: Mrs. Hill will make fun of me for referring to a movie since I am one of those people who forget movies almost as fast as I see them. But since I just saw Iron Man 3\u2014it\u2019s pretty fresh on my mind and I confess that I like super hero and Star Trek movies.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t had the chance to see Tony Stark in his latest cool battle gear, I don\u2019t want to totally give away the plot of the movie. Spoiler alert\u2014In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark stops being iron man and becomes just a regular guy. \u201cI’m Tony Stark. I build neat stuff. I got a great girl. And occasionally save the world. So why can’t I sleep?\u201d Life as a super hero is not perfect for him and he chooses to give it up\u2014I won\u2019t tell you how all of that happens (I forget the details) but he says late in the movie: \u201cMy suit was never a distraction or a hobby. It was a cocoon. And I’m a new man now.\u201d It turns out that being a super hero might not be all that it\u2019s cracked up to be. It\u2019s the same thing that happens to other heroes that you can probably think of. Aniken Skywalker comes to mind, and Harry Potter seems to battle just as many inner demons as outer ones.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something hollow at the core for super heroes, entombed in their suits of armor or entrapped by the very powers which protect them. The enlightened super hero understands the phoniness of living a life trying to be someone who he is not or of fulfilling someone else\u2019s conception of him. We see this in the angst superheroes display before they willingly give up their powers or lose them to a sinister force. We might feel this ourselves in an honest moment of revelation.<\/p>\n

How does any of this relate to you in the Class of 2013. On the stage, in the art studios, on the fields\u2014you are an accomplished group and have spent the most formative years of your young adult lives becoming yourselves\u2014whether you have been here for one year or six. You have made lifelong friendships; been influenced by teachers, coaches, advisers and others in ways that are both obvious and subtle. You have gotten to know yourself. So, don\u2019t stop being yourself just because you get a Williston diploma tomorrow and head off to college or other pursuits. You don\u2019t really need to reinvent yourself when you leave here; you don\u2019t have to put on body armor\u2014there\u2019s nothing wrong with continuing to be who you are, not some super hero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: The following Baccalaureate remarks were presented by Head of School Robert W. Hill III on May 25, 2013 in Stephens Chapel. Good evening seniors, parents, colleagues and welcome to our Baccalaureate Ceremony for the Class of 2013. I wanted to share a few remarks before we begin this traditional ceremony which dates from … Continue reading Baccalaureate Speech by Robert W. Hill III<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[163,153,23,162],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commencement-address","category-faculty-speaker","tag-baccalaureate","tag-class-of-2013","tag-head-of-school","tag-head-of-school-robert-w-hill-iii"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}