aaaaWelcome, Fr. Dubay, Mr. Galten, Mr. Kersting, members of the board, trustees, parents, guests, and our generous benefactors. Thank you for the time, money, and support that you have given us over these last four years.

aaaaFor me, leaving Trinity is leaving a place that has been my home and school for the last nine years. A decade of my life has passed in these walls, or lack of them. I remember having my first Pre-Algebra class over on those stone tables behind you. Under that tree there I waited three hours to be picked up after the generator burst and the administration was forced to call it a day. I have eaten, drunk, and slept Trinity since third grade and now it is time to give my adieus. My leaving is an even more drastic change than just leaving my high school; it is a departure from a whole childhood that has culminated in this final day. I can distinctly remember sitting in the seats you are sitting in today, waiting for my turn to come, while I was sleeping through my older brother's valedictorian treatise on life.

aaaaI feel I can rightly say that all of us graduates are a product of a complete Trinity education, spiritually, academically, and athletically. We have been conditioned to expect at least one lecture on Neanderthals, a talk on chastity, and a trip to the Boardwalk every year. We have become accustomed to the blank stares we receive when asked which high school we attend and shocked faces when we tell them that it has a graduating class of 16.  If anything, I think that Trinity has imbued in me a sense of impious disregard for what is considered "normal."  When our Physics Lab more resembles a lab you'd find on Lost than on CSI or when the only foreign language taught in high school is the Modus Loquendi of 17th century priests, all claims on normality are lost. But that's not so bad. Kids' being taught to be different really sums up the most important part of the "Trinity" education.

aaaaIn the years to come we will all be faced with challenges and temptations. How we deal with them on a daily basis will determine whether we can count this Trinity education as a success or a failure. The work most easily undone after school is the spiritual work. It is imperative that we hold on to our atypical ways of living and follow our consciences, which after four years of Trinity have about as many answers to any moral question as the Catechism. Ask any Trinity senior a question on human morals and, Catholic or not, you are bound to get an answer that even St. Thomas would approve of. But it's not just enough to know the answers; we must live them. We cannot let ourselves be dissuaded by our friends or desires. The Psalmist says, "There are many who say: who will make us see good? The light of your face, Lord, is signed upon us." (Ps 4:5) Let the "light of your face," our consciences formed in union with the Church, be our guide in the years to come. For who could ask for a better life than one free from regrets and thoughts of what could have been? Let us glory in our unique way, and let it lead us on to better and brighter opportunities.

aaaaNow, on a lighter note, for our graduating eighth graders, congratulations. I hope you haven't gotten used to being the top of the elementary school ladder, because you are about to go to the bottom rank of the new hierarchy. Once you get past 9th grade it will all seem easy, but, as a rule, 9th grade is meant to be suffered.  Don't take the teasing, ball carrying, or canning personally; it's not you, it's the grade. For those of you planning to continue your studies at Trinity, realize that that playing on a sports team requires dedication, not necessarily talent. Mr. Riley is now your friend, and the older you get the more you realize he's the coolest kid here. And finally, be prepared to hear every semester from now until you graduate that it is the "most important semester" of your high school careers.

aaaaIn all this talk about looking towards the future and planning our lives, whether it's our new lives as adults or as high schoolers, let us not forget the people whom we have to thank for sending us to Trinity to begin with, our parents. Thank you, parents, for all the sacrifices you have made to make this education possible, and though you knew that we did not always appreciate it, you insisted on making the sacrifices anyway. Class of 2006, now is the time to show our gratitude by using the potential that they have given us to make them proud in the years to come.

aaaaIn conclusion, fellow graduates, straighten up, fly right, and I hope to see you all in ten years.

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