COMMENCEMENT: JUNE 9, 2016 As the graduating class looks toward the future, here are a few last words of wisdom ...
with classmates, friends, romantic issues, and, of course, our parents. (Holding up a basketball) If any of you are feeling sad, lonely, depressed, or just want to bring back good memories, remember this ball, remember this class, this school, and I promise that your spirits will be lifted. For the last month or so, we eighth graders have been diagnosed with the terrible disease of “senioritis.” We slump around the halls and classrooms moaning about how we want to get out, how we want to move on to high school. However, looking around this cathedral today, I am starting to miss you already. To the sextons and Grace Cathedral: Thank you for giving us the chance to experience such an amazing, righteous place. Chapel every morning would not have been the same without you. To Mr. Jones and his administration: Thanks administrators for administering the school, keeping CSB’s engines running, and providing all of us with
wondrous things that we could never have imagined. Thank you, Mr. Jones, for taking us out to lunch, teaching us how to be men, and most importantly, thank you for playing soccer with us at the end of each day. To all the teachers: Thank you for granting us students the ability, need, and aspiration to want to learn more. It is because of you that we have the yearning to learn. To our families and parents: Thank you for always being there, thank you for giving us the amazing opportunity to attend CSB, thank you for putting up with all of our vexing shenanigans, and thank you for your sacrifice to make us have good lives. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, Mrs. Huber, Mrs. Chow, and Mr. Apostoli: Thank you for reading to us, thanks for teaching us to write an essay, thanks for protecting us, and thanks for all the feedback, knowledge, and positivity
that you brought to CSB. You will be missed, and will always be part of the CSB community. To the Class of 2016 : Thank you guys for being the coolest, weirdest, nicest, rowdiest, and smartest group of humans that I know. Words can seriously not describe our relationship. Our moments of glorious, raw fun will never be forgotten. I am going to miss you guys very much, and I know that we will always be friends. But when we walk out of those doors and enter through a new set, our friendships and bonds will be changed. They will be even stronger; because although we won’t see each other every day, we will always have the ability to reconnect mentally and physically. (Holding up a basketball) I wish for all of you to create your own paths, learn as much as you can along the way, never forget CSB, and always remain part of this community.
an eternity, this basketball turned my sadness to gratefulness. When I was presented with this basketball, I suddenly became grateful. Grateful that I was part of a community that sincerely cared about my well-being. During the time between leaving after second grade and returning in seventh, our class had grown immensely. When I came back, there were new teachers, new students, new rules, and even an entirely new building—all these things that have made our school better. Even though I was not at CSB from grade three to grade six, I would still regularly get questions such as “Alex, remember that time in fourth grade?” or “Hey Uchi, remember sixth-grade Outdoor Ed?” Obviously, I do not remember any of these seemingly spectacular times, because I was in Ohio. But, what I took away from these questions was that I was not forgotten, I was still part of an important community, and that I would remain part of it for the rest of my life. No matter where life takes me, I will always have tons of CSB memories. From cubbies to lockers, shorts to pants, “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Popsicle stick counting to graphing parabolas, Adam and Eve to Aristotle’s philosophy, and kickball on the roof to soccer on the turf, these years have been amazing. (Turning to eighth graders) Guys, when we all go our separate ways and embark on a new expedition called high school, we will still be part of our same, tight community. None of us will be forgotten. We can still Snapchat, text, DM, or just call up a CSB classmate when we are in need of a good talk. We will also always be available for help with social media inconveniences, sports stuff, troubles
AARON MULLEN, Director of Community and Inclusion
(Holding up a basketball) Does anyone know what this is? Well, this is actually many things. Yes, it is a basketball, and if you look close, you will see it is covered with signatures, student signatures, plus those of Ms. Graham and Ms. Banks. Some of these signatures are kind of smudged, and some very smudged. However, all of these signatures were written with love, empathy, and a Sharpie. For those who don’t know why I have this, this ball was given to me at the end of my second-grade year here at CSB, the year right before I moved from San Francisco to a foreign place called Ohio. Aside from being a basketball, it also represents something that CSB is exceedingly good at—community. This Spalding, NBA, indoor/outdoor, tack-soft ball is community. To a small second-grader, in tears because I would soon be leaving my companions for what seemed like
ALEX UCHIMURA, Class of 2016
GRADUATES, ALUMNI, FELLOW FACULTY, FRIENDS, AND FAMILIES OF THE GRADUATES: I am extremely honored to be here today, and to celebrate this special group of young men of the Cathedral School for Boys, Class of 2016. Let’s relax for a second and rewind to Fall 2007, your earliest Hawk days. Kindergarten, Mrs. Rhyne was your teacher, it was nine years ago, you were about 42 inches tall and weighed about 50 pounds, a gallon of gas was $3.38, Barry Bonds broke baseball’s home run record, there was the mortgage crisis, the movie “Transformers” was released (the first one), Soulja Boy came out with that awful song “Crank That,” and Steve Jobs released an ultimate game changer, Apple’s first generation iPhone. Wow, what a year. As an Upper School teacher, I had limited interactions with you guys early on, but I do remember Mr. Neary telling me, “You’re going to win a few championships with Nick, Zeke, and Fin. And be ready for a group that asks a lot of questions.” I didn’t fully understand Mr. Neary’s words back then, but I have a solid understanding of them now. Whether it was PE
HELLO. Dean Young, Headmaster Jones, Chairperson Nooney, faculty and staff, friends and family, students, and fellow members of the class of 2016—thank you for your attendance. My name is Alex Uchimura and, to start off this speech, I would like to congratulate all eighth graders of the 2016 Class. We have made it. We are graduating CSB! We started at the bottom as kindergartners; now the whole team is here. And to think that there are so many dangers in this world such as ISIS, Ebola, global warming, pollution, walking through Mr. Mundy’s classroom while he is teaching—all things quite fatal—but we still managed to graduate. So let’s give this class a big round of applause.
class, athletic practice, Perspectives Group with Mr. V, PBL with Ms. Jiménez, or advisory, I have no idea how many times you guys have asked the question “What are we going to do today?” Right, Gavin and Sam? Rather than give you a typical “Coach Mullen” response such as “You’ll find out,” or “Really,” or give some form of dramatic side-eye, today I’ll beat you to it and will communicate the purpose of your last exhaustive Coach Mullen talk. Continued on page 26
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