Thanks to all of our Sentinel readers for a great year. I appreciate all the feedback and support. As in previous years, for the last issue we print the text of my graduation speech from Friday’s commencement ceremony: 

It is a long tradition at our graduation to acknowledge groups within this graduating class who, through their character, perseverance, confidence, curiosity, discipline, hard work, and passion have embodied the best of what Sequoia High School does.

Seniors:

• If you have played a sport while at Sequoia, stand tall and be recognized.
• If you danced, sang, or participated in a performing art while at Sequoia, stand tall, shake, snap or dip, and be recognized.
• If you have held a job to help support yourself or your family during high school, stand tall and be recognized.
• If you are the first member of your family to graduate from high school, stand tall and be recognized.
• If you have enlisted in a branch of the United States Military, stand tall and be recognized.
• If you are enrolling in college this fall, stand tall and be recognized.
• If you are the first member of your family to attend college, stand tall and be recognized.

Yesterday we spent a couple of hours practicing for this graduation because we wanted it to be as great as possible for our friends and families. To really put on a good show. We walked in a line through the hallways, through the breezeway, past my favorite tree in the whole world — that magnolia whose blossoms are exploding just in time for the biggest day of the year (that tree is such a rock star). We walked past the bleachers, imagining this cheering crowd, to our seats. We practiced walking in front of the stage, receiving our diplomas and going back to our seats. In a few minutes, we’ll do it for real. And that’s where the path ends.

“Caminante no hay camino, se hace el camino al andar…” The words of poet Antonio Machado: Traveller, there is no road, the road is made with your steps.

From here, your roads diverge in all different directions. You’ve taken what we can offer you. In some cases embracing lessons, in other cases rejecting them. You can analyze more critically than you could four years ago. You’re more optimistic in some ways, more skeptical in others. I’d use the word sophisticated. You’re asking questions you never knew you’d ask four years ago. None of us knew.  

That’s important to remember. Be respectful, be humble, but don’t defer. Keep asking questions. Big questions. Use what you’ve learned at Sequoia to begin to decide what BIG questions you want to answer with your life: professionally, in relationships, in service to your community. The answers to these questions will be the steps you take. And these steps will be the road. Se hace el camino al andar…

A note of gratitude:  

• Thank you for all the times you cleaned up after yourself at lunch.
• Thank you for being positive in support of your peers when they performed at rallies, plays, athletic events, or other performances. 
• Thank you for fighting for the rights of others, whether it be for those with disabilities, the undocumented, those struggling with mental health issues, the LGBTQIA+ community, or any other marginalized group.  
• Thank you for always looking for the good in those around you — finding the person who needs a pencil, and passing them one.  

The one and only Sequoia High School Class of 2023: your optimism and empathy, your humility and your gratitude have inspired us over the past four years. A piece of this place of friends will ALWAYS belong to you. Adelante, caminantes…su camino les espera crear.   

I have one more group I want to recognize.

Class of 2023, if you showed Sequoia Pride by wearing purple on Fridays, If you know how to defend your claims with evidence, test a hypothesis. If you can show an inequality by using mathematical reasoning or by citing a primary historical source. If you stood up tall for something or someone you believe in, if you pledge to carry unaliyi in your hearts with you.

If you have EARNED the right to turn your tassels and receive a diploma from Sequoia High School...

Please stand to be recognized!

Sean