Valedictory - Brownville-Glen Park High School - Class of 1922

Dear Teachers, Friends and Classmates,

For four years our little fleet has been riding in harbor and to-day the anchors are weighed and slowly we drop down together with the tide. A few hours more and these clustering sails will be scattered and fading specks, each in its own horizon, straining or drifting toward its goal. And now, as we still linger in the narrows, side by side, the purely material grows strange and we turn from specific ills and failures to the thought of some worthy life principle, the vision of some high and comprehensive ideal which may re-awaken as we part, our finest purpose and devotion.

Let us, for a little, then consider the law of service and its claims on us. In the past few years we have heard more of service, we have seen more of service. We have had more chances to be of service than have most of those who spent their high school days in the peaceful pre-war period. We entered the high school just before the armistice was signed, but we can remember what we heard and saw of service in the preceding war days. The service then was of a practical, materialistic sort, letters, bandages, refugee garments, etc. But with the Armistice the need for that kind of service ceased and a new kind of service created. Service, less of the hands and eyes and strength but more of an inner spirit. One need not write letters or send packages to soldiers now, but one could speak words of encouragement to those who were disheartened, whether they had ever been soldiers or not. Refugee garments are no longer made, but the days of business depression and unemployment give opportunity for much service. Do you think that because these things have been outside our immediate surroundings, because as high school students, they have not touched us, that we have not seen and that we have not felt? We hope we are not blind nor as selfish as some of the older critics of to-day’s youth would have you think.

Into our class rooms have come sounds from outside. We have felt, dimly and vaguely, to be sure, the tumult in the outer world and it has aroused us with the desire to answer that cry and to be of service. If we are filled with this ideal, we cannot but be of help to this community and to other communities into which life may take us. And knowing our ideal had its foundation back in high school in nineteen twenty-two, our class and our Alma Mater will always be most dear to us.

Members of the Board of Education....

Before we set sail in our small ships into the world for service we wish to express in as appropriate and eloquent words as we can, our appreciation of your careful guardianship, planning and supervision through our entire high school life. We do not set sail without realizing that you have laid the foundation for the event in our young lives. Once again to you, we extend our thanks.

Dear teachers....

You who have piloted our fleet through the past four years, we know how you have put forth every effort within your power to make true American men and women of us and enable us to be of valued service in the World. Only the future can determine the success that you have had. We extend our gratitude to you for what you have so cheerfully done for each one of us.

Worthy juniors....

We are leaving you our place in the quiet and peaceful harbor. May you be as successful as we have been and in every way, profit by our example. We have earned our rewards and suffered our punishments, but by perservering effort, we have mastered our lessons and paid the price for “Value received.” May you be as faithfully rewarded.

So you, my classmates, the final words of farewell must be addressed. Our minds to-day are under the spell of two great forces, memory and hope. Of memory, as we look back over the years now ended, which have given us a position in the student’s life, which is like no other, and have furnished experience from the power of which this life is too brief to free us. Of hope, as each one stands questioning his own future, like that of the others, is nothing save its unanswering inscrutability. With what words may I best gather up the whole meaning of this moment?

Many have objected to our English phrase, “good-bye” on the ground that it is too hopeless; that it contains no attempt to disguise or to remove the feeling which a writer has expressed. “In every parting there is an image of death.” But after all, it is the most appropriate word for in a few days since our parting is real and final. We met yesterday for the last time as undergraduates, to-day we meet for the last time as high-school students. From this time on we occupy a different position and live a different life. Difference of thought and opinion, which now lie on the outer edges of our lives, and separate us but slightly, will divide us more and more deeply, and as time passes, the years of separation will flow between us as an ever-widening flood, spanned only by a common memory and a mutual regard.

But whether or not we are saying good-bye to each other, we are saying good-bye to the old high school days. They, at least, will never come back. So, I prefer the unadorned English phrase which makes no delusive promises, but contains pleasant memories of a past spent together and kind wishes for a future to be spent apart.

And now, with what wish may we express the highest evidence of the friendship and interest we feel for each other? Shall we desire unbroken success and immunity from sorrow? We might, but it would be a vain and foolish wish. We are to live in the world, and among men, and we may be sure that somewhere across our path lies the inevitable shadow. But what does it matter? This does not make life ignoble. The responsibilities and opportunities of these four years have passed by forever; but the issue of the future, for honor or for shame, rests in no accidents of position or circumstances, but in our own hands.

The man with high aim and firm purpose, with unselfish ambition, and longing for the ideal, knows no failure or defeat. For him and for him alone, all the experiences of life combine to pave the way to further achievement. I can wish nothing higher or happier for us than through our lives, in _____(torn off)______ brightest sunshine or deepest shadows, there may remain with us that consciousness of duty well performed, of suffering nobly endured, all of life faithfullylived. In the hope of such ______________ (incomplete)

Note: This speech was undoubtedly delivered by Doris E. Hasner at the commencement exercises of the Class of 1922 of the Brownville-Glen Park High School, Brownville, Jefferson County, N. Y. The manuscript has lain around among the Conklin family papers for years. However, only the first eight pages were found. I would say by reading the text, that there were a few paragraphs missing beyond the incomplete paragraph above. (by Shirley Conklin Farone, Miss Hasner’s daughter)