Welcome everyone to the Garden City High School's 2009 Commencement Ceremony. On behalf of the class of 2009 I would like to extend a special welcome to Dr. Feirsen and the central Administration, Mrs. Foley and the Board of Education, and Ms. Cuttitta, Mr. Perrotta, Dr. Peccora, and the entire High School Faculty and Staff. I would also like to take a moment to say thank you. None of us in the graduating class would be here today without the help of teachers, counselors, family, friends, and most importantly parents. And while we definitely owe a lot to our fabulous support network, we must first and foremost be very proud of our own accomplishments. I could stand here and talk about all that we have achieved in the past four years, but we are already very familiar with these feats. I could speak about what the future holds, but the future is still ours to shape. Instead, I feel it's much more important to talk about what we have forgotten.

While our heads, up until recently, have been filled with thoughts of college applications and decisions, AP exams, finals, and, of course, prom plans, they used to be filled with dreams of becoming astronauts, famous artists and musicians, professional athletes, dancers, writers and Lego-designers. It is a widely held notion that we learned everything we really needed to know in Kindergarten: how to share, play nicely with other kids, respect our parents and teachers, and of course, use our imaginations and follow our dreams. Dreams, possibly aided by somewhat over-active imaginations, have led to the invention of everything from computers to antibiotics, from Post-its to a self-twirling spaghetti fork. Without this creativity, the world around us would be a very different place. But, in the twelve short years between Kindergarten and Senior year, we have come to focus on the more immediate future, often at the expense of the extraordinary dreams we made among the adventures of our much younger imaginations. While subsequent education, especially during these last four years, has provided us with a wealth of knowledge that certainly will not be a disadvantage in our futures, it nonetheless may have taken its toll on some of the dreams we made so very long ago. As we enter a world that we have been told requires precise planning and practicality, we must always remember to follow our dreams, never forget that creativity and imagination are the keys to achieving any goal, and always include our inner children when making the most important decisions. So, as we take the next big step of our lives in which more knowledge will be available than we can possibly absorb, let us hang on to the lesson Dr. Seuss taught us so many years ago: "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go."

Congratulations and good luck to the class of 2009