CUM LAUDE SOCIETY
Cum Laude Society On February 6, 27 seniors were inducted into the John H. Cooper Chapter of the Cum Laude Society during an Upper School Assembly and were further honored at a dinner hosted by the School in the Kinkaid Theatre Lobby that evening. In addition to their outstanding performance in the classroom, these students have exhibited good character, honor and integrity in all aspects of their school life. The following are excerpts from the speeches delivered at the assembly and dinner.
GEORGE KHACHATRYAN ’03 It is my understanding that in such speeches, one is supposed to give some kind of advice which is very broad and directly applicable to the listeners’ future lives. Now, I’m hardly qualified to give such advice; first of all, as far as I’m aware, I’ve only led but one life, and second, its duration so far has been rather a small fraction of the typical full duration of such things. Nevertheless, having been set such a goal, I gave it my even best and came up with some points of general advice. To make sure the advice was good, I ran it by a few of my friends. I learned that day that I have very critical friends. And – perhaps more to the point – that all of the recommendations I had come up with were irredeemably flawed. … And so, I’d like to preface this speech with a disclaimer: while I will be giving some advice, please don’t take it too seriously. As the saying goes, I’m selling this advice for what I bought it for. Which is nothing. And, as I’m sure you know, you get what you pay for. Therefore, instead of saying what you should do, I’d like to describe one particular approach to life that I’ve taken and which has led me to some measure of satisfaction and fulfillment. We could title this speech, “One Approach to Living an Exciting Life.” What do I mean by an exciting life, and why might it be worth pursuing? I don’t mean a life full of exciting, disconnected installments. To me, an exciting life is one that requires great effort and which builds on itself, taking you on a long, cohesive, unpredictable journey. Now this sort of life isn’t for everyone, but it is something I aspired to from childhood. Perhaps one reason for this has been the memory of my grandfather, who was born and died in a country that no longer exists, the Soviet Union. When my grandfather was in college, his father was arrested and sent to the Gulag in the course of the Stalinist repressions, a program of arbitrary arrests and summary executions that, over the course of several 10
"To me, an exciting life is one that requires great effort and which builds on itself, taking you on a long, cohesive, unpredictable journey." - George Khachatryan ’03, Cum Laude decades, claimed the lives of millions. My grandfather was summoned to the office of the university president and asked to sign a piece of paper disowning his father. He refused and was expelled from the university. He found himself without a means of support; his father was in prison, and – as the son of a confirmed enemy of the people – he couldn’t get a job. Normally, someone in such a situation would have no choice but to eke out a living, dependent for the foreseeable future on the charity of friends and distant relatives. But this was not a life that my grandfather wanted for himself, and so he went to the headquarters of the NKVD, the precursor of the KGB and the agency responsible for carrying out the mass repressions. Walking into this building – a building that people would go several blocks out of their way to avoid on their daily commutes – he asked to speak with an agent and was ushered into the office of an NKVD major. My grandfather recounted his story and told the major, “Arrest me. You’ve arrested my father; I can’t get a job. If I’m a criminal, arrest me.” The major phoned the university president and quoted a line from Lenin: “The son is not responsible for the crimes of the father.” The terrified president immediately reinstated my
grandfather, who went on to graduate, fight in World War II (during the course of which he was declared officially dead on no fewer than three separate occasions), and become a respected physicist and one of the Soviet Union’s first environmentalists. I never really knew my grandfather, who died when I was three years old. But I grew up with his approach to life held up as an ideal, and his life was certainly an exciting one. He refused to go along with scripted outcomes that didn’t fit his plans, overcame enormous obstacles to achieve his goals, and in the end, against all odds, produced things of value to himself and others. And while it is unlikely that in today’s world, any of us would have to face the kind of adversity that he did, we can still – if we so choose – take the same approach that he did, trying to make more of the hand we’ve been dealt than convention would suppose possible. … Everyone can lead an exciting life – it is only a question of desire and determination. So, for those who do desire an exciting life, I’m pleased to present my patented, completely original 3 Step Plan (which Offers One Approach) to an Exiting Life. … Step 1: Take risks. You can’t expect to be surprised if you don’t take risks. And the bigger the risk, the bigger the surprise. For example, you will soon (in fact, sooner than you might think) need to make a decision concerning what industry you will enter. There exist many interesting, worthwhile, established industries and professions, and with the excellent education you have gotten at Kinkaid, you’ll have no problems entering any one of them if only you desire it. … But don’t expect it to be particularly exciting when – for all intents and purposes – you know your entire career trajectory ahead of time. If you want excitement, you might want to consider going into an emerging industry, perhaps into a job type or profession that doesn’t even exist yet.... For example, I work for Reasoning Mind, a non-profit that develops online learning systems for math and trains teachers to use these systems in their classrooms. This entire field is still in its infancy, and no one can say with certainty where it will be 10 years from today. In 1913, Thomas Edison predicted that motion pictures would revolutionize edu-