SHAWNEE

(Continued from Page G8) kind of people we are, but rather the kind of people we aspire to be.”

“When I spoke four years ago as a timid 8th grader (at Medford Memorial School’s graduation), I couldn’t have possibly imagined the things our class would come to accomplish,” said Ryan, who previously won best delegate at a Model UN Club conference and is also one of the Principal’s Award recipients. “Now, here we are again, as the 2023 graduating class of Shawnee, and I couldn’t be prouder of the distance our class has overcome. Every one of us should be proud of our achievements and the work it took to get where we are now.

“So, Class of 2023, I would like to leave us with a simple message: be curious as it makes us and the world a whole lot more interesting.”

Valedictorian Michael Haussman’s message to the graduating class is “one pinnacle failure was all it took to change my perspective – to teach me the importance of putting an effort into all aspects of my life,” as well as that “avoiding failure only leads to stagnation.”

Comfort zones, he explained, “give us a sense of shelter in an unfamiliar time and place, like the eye of a storm helping us find peace amongst chaos.”

For Haussman, his comfort zone is math as the “the beautiful logic and systematic thinking really puts my mind at ease.”

“I became reliant on it to be that one place in high school where I felt comfortable and calm in the chaos of the ever-winding halls of Shawnee,” Haussman said.

However, at one point, he declared, “it stabbed me in the back” and “left me out to dry” with his “comfort zone becoming flooded with anxiety-inducing hostility,” the result of having failed a test.

“Most of us have failed a test or two, and in the grand scheme of things, it is not a big deal,” Haussman said. “But for me, grades, especially in math class, were more than just a number. It was almost a matter of identity. When school felt weird and out of my comfort zone, I at least had my grades. But now all I had was a 47 staring back at me, taunting me, and reminding me of my failure.”

Having earned such a score on a test, Haussman asserted, “was the tipping point in my high school career – my Chernobyl, a complete nuclear meltdown.”

“If you are thinking, ‘He failed only one test, this isn’t that big of a deal,’ you’re right, and you definitely have a much healthier relationship with your grades than I do,” the valedictorian quipped. “But in that moment, I didn’t know what to do. I knew the material, at least I thought I did, and now the one place where I felt like everything was under my control, suddenly felt like a chaotic, radioactive mess I had to clean up.”

After spending “years gliding by, doing the bare minimum,” Haussman said, he was left with a choice, and “so, I put the work in like I never had before, managing to squeeze out an ‘A.’”

But it was that new work ethic, Haussman explained, that “not only helped with my academics, but also led to other things like making friends and finding my place in high school,” after an admittedly tough start as a lonely freshman who struggled to socialize, with the valedictorian adding that “I started to put myself out there a bit instead of just sitting around quietly and ended up finding a lot of interesting people,” after having put the work into his studies.

“One pinnacle failure was all it took to change my perspective to teach me the importance of putting an effort into all aspects of my life,” Haussman added. “It was the need to overcome a setback that pushed me to a higher level.”

The Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and 2021 presented another setback for students like him that had to be overcome, he noted, but “yet, here we all are, graduating – because we overcame the setback; and we are able to overcome setbacks like this because of past failures.”

“It is our failures that prepare us for setbacks that we don’t anticipate,” Haussman emphasized. “Failing teaches us how to adjust to our situation and persevere. My failure taught me how working hard can lead me to success and help me when I had to keep myself on schedule, working at home. We can choose to avoid failure, but we can’t choose to avoid the many setbacks that life throws at us. And when those come, avoiding failure only hurts us in the long run.

“… It was the many setbacks and failures that we all had that made us into who we are today. Just like how we can’t truly be happy without knowing sadness, we can’t know success without failures.”

The valedictorian said of June 16 that “although this day is meant to celebrate our great success of graduating high school,” he would also like to “celebrate all the failures along the way.”

“As good as many of the teachers are here, none of them hold a candle to the great teacher that failure is,” Haussman declared. “The greatest teachers can only do so much. Failure gives us a choice: grow and overcome, or break down and quit. So, as we take our next steps to college, the workforce, trade school and beyond, don’t fear failure. To grow, we must all fail, and in the face of failure, overcome and push forward. Avoiding failure only leads to stagnation. So, fail, a lot – OK well try not to fail your classes, but fail boldly and learn from it, grow from it. We all have so much ahead of us. Don’t peak in high school because of fear of failure. Try new things, push the fear away, and most of all, never stop learning and growing.”

Perseverance is something that Salutatorian Isabella Christianson made a point of in her commencement address to the 367 graduates, noting it is “the main reason I have the honor of speaking to all of you today.”

“It took perseverance to stay up late every night doing physics homework or finishing a presentation,” she said. “At some point or another, everyone here has persevered through a tough time. We all made it through our freshman year and are here standing here today to accept our diplomas. I am glad we learned perseverance this early in our lives, because it is a much-needed skill for future success.”

Christianson said the graduates will once again have to persevere, whether it be through college, trade school or the workforce.

“We will need to push through not only academic struggles, but all the hardships life throws at us,” she declared. “Within the next few years, some of us will get fired, others of us will not get hired for a job or get rejected from the graduate school we want.”

“But we will persevere,” Christianson continued. “We need to remember that rigidity in the face of adversity leaves each of us vulnerable to breakage. What is important is bending and being flexible when trouble comes our way. So, choose things that add pressure and let the experience bend you into a stronger person.

“The satisfaction of succeeding after failure is enough to keep us all going. So, graduates, go – live, be curious, fail and persevere.”