MARLBORO — Let's take a moment to step back and reflect on what this day means.
Our diplomas don't say much by themselves. They confirm that yes, you have the skills necessary to graduate high school: mainly filling in multiple-choice bubbles and coming up with solid excuses for why your paper is late.
More than that, however, that little slip of paper means that you have had an education. This is nothing to sneeze at; just this fact alone puts you in better stead than many young adults our age, and the vast majority of our ancestors.
You can now count yourself as an educated adult and a full citizen of this country.
So what, you might say. I didn't learn anything in high school that I'm gonna use in real life.
The thing is, you will.
* * *
The important things you learn in high school are not the capital of Malaysia or the Pythagorean theorem, even if it is in song form. No, the important things are the ones you have learned slowly, so slowly you might not have noticed.
You might have learned how to communicate; whether it be through writing, song, art, or music, you can put your voice out there for anyone who will listen.
You might have learned to interact with your peers - a vital skill, oft overlooked.
You might have learned to think critically, to observe the world around you and ask questions, like how, what, where, and why.
Aristotle said, “The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.” You are now alive.
* * *
Being alive, in Aristotle's sense of the word, is more important than ever.
This is a time of upheaval and change. This is a time when revolutions and civil wars are breaking out in every corner of the globe. This is a time when some of our most basic freedoms have been threatened.
This is not a time for apathy, for sitting back, and letting the world pass you by. Get out there, be active, be involved, and most of all, be educated.
The best way to participate in your community, the state, the nation, or the world, is to educate yourself about what's going on and what it all means.
If you don't, then you have no right to complain about how the world ends up. If you want to see change in the world, you have to make a change.
For you to make a change, you have to be educated.
* * *
Last year, I spent seven months in Marrakech, Morocco. During that time, I stayed with two host families.
In each family, I had a brother my age. My two respective brothers, Taha and Simo, were about as different as two people can be. The only thing they had in common was a love of soccer.
Taha was quiet, shy, and private - rare traits in a Moroccan man. He was far more studious than I was, spending nearly all his free time studying or going to extra classes.
He spoke three languages, and he was doing quite well in the notoriously hard Moroccan school system. He always knew what was going on in the world and watched the news often, whenever there wasn't a soccer match on.
He was a true citizen of the world; he was educated.
Simo was loud, brash, and funny. He went to school, too, but he rarely did his homework and wasn't doing so well. He spent much of his free time goofing off, often with me, and roaming the streets.
He was also educated. His education was very different from Taha's; he learned how to sell and barter from his father, who owned a shop in the old city. He could weave and create all kinds of leather jewelry and trinkets.
Most of all, however, he knew his community like the back of his hand. His neighborhood was tightly packed, with houses built up rather than out, leaning precariously over the street, with exposed cinder blocks bare to the world.
It was a rough part of town. Simo could navigate it without a hitch, and he knew all of his many neighbors. He was well-liked, a familiar face about town, and when I was with him I knew I was safe as could be.
He was engaged in his community in a way I'd never seen before, and I admired him for that. He was educated.
Taha and Simo had very different kinds of education, but neither of these types is better than the other; they both achieve the same goal by different methods: to be a person able to fully participate in the world around him- or herself.
* * *
You are all lucky people to be sitting where you are today. You have made it through high school, a feat unto itself, and are preparing to enter the next stage of your life, whatever that might be.
You all have been given a gift - the greatest gift one can receive: an education. This is a treasure people fight and die for; you have been given it. Make it worthwhile.
I'm not asking you to change the world, although please feel free to try.
All I'm asking is that you don't let these gifts go to waste. Keep writing, keep making art, keep following your dream. Stay critical, look at the world through sharp eyes, considering all that you take in.
Don't do it for me, do it for yourselves and, most of all, do it for those who couldn't be here today to receive this gift.
According to Aristotle, you are now alive. Don't ever lose that.